A VOICE 

TO THB 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

PROM THE 

METROPOLIS OF SCOTLAND ; 

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF 

VARIOUS MEETINGS HELD IN EDINBURGH ON THE SUBJECT 

OF 

AMERICAN SLAVERY, 

UPON THE RETURN OF 

MR GEORGE THOMPSON, 

FROM HIS MISSION TO THAT COUNTRY. 



We hold these truths to be self-evident -.—Thai all men abb created equal ; that they are 
endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. — American Declarat ion of Independence. 



EDINBURGH : 
WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND SON, 

7 SOUTH BRIDGE STREET. 
1836, 



Price Ninepence. 



Pass. B-Sh-j^l 



f 



Q. C. Z 



A VOICE 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 



METROPOLIS OF SCOTLAND ; 



BEING AN ACCOUNT OF 

VARIOUS MEETINGS HELD IN EDINBURGH ON THE SUBJECT 



AMERICAN SLAVERY, 



UPON THE RETURN OF 



MR GEORGE THOMPSON, 



FROM HIS MISSION TO THAT COUNTRY. 



We hold these truths to be self-evident :— That all men are created equal ; that they are 
endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness, — American Declaration of Independence. 



EDINBURGH : 
WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND SON, 

7 SOUTH BRIDGE STREET. 
1836. 



.£TZ3 



l'KfN'I KD BY NEILL & CO., OLD FISHMARKET. 



PRELIMINARY NOTICE 



While the inhabitants of this country were straining every nerve 
to effect the abolition of Slavery within their own colonies, they were 
far from being insensible to the groans of millions, who have long 
been held in a state of bondage as outrageous and deplorable as that 
of the West India Islands, and, in many instances, far more so : but at 
that time they were fully aware of the painful situation in which they 
stood. They felt that with no consistency could their voice be heard 
on high, and that all their remonstrances must have fallen point- 
less to the ground. " Physician, heal thyself," might then have been 
the reply from every other country. As a nation, we required first 
to take the beam out of our own eye, before we could see clearly how 
to take the mote out of the eye of any other nation. But no sooner 
was the blow struck which abolished our own colonial slavery, — no 
sooner was the day determined, and the great truth, that man cannot 
hold property in man, recorded in our statute-book, as one fixed 
principle of British law, than the spirit of sympathy begau to strug- 
gle for expansion, and the spirit of freedom for expression in regard 
to slavery wherever it existed. " The Edinburgh Society for 
the Abolition of Slavery throughout the World," was one 
of the results. It was formed in October 1833, after a series of Lec- 
tures on the subject of slavery by Mr George Thompson, whose la- 
bours in this country, in the great cause of Negro emancipation, had 
been attended with triumphant success. 

Slavery throughout the world presented a field for exertion, of the 
most appalling description, far more extensive than that which had 
so long wrung the hearts, and stimulated the energy, of the people 
in this kingdom. There was the existence of the slave trade itself, 
still carried on to great extent by other nations, in express violation 
of treaties, solemnly signed, sealed, and delivered ; to which the at- 
tention of our Legislature yet remains to be respectfully, but ener- 
getically and perseveringly directed. There was the horrid system 
of slavery as still practised in Brazil to a prodigious extent ; and, 
above all, because, under all its circumstances, it is the vilest on which 
the sun has ever shone, the slavery of the United States of America, 

Slavery maintained, nay, and defended with unblushing effrontery, 
by a people who claim to be regarded by all other nations as the freest in 
the world, could not fail, in these days, to excite notice and reproba- 



4 



PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 



tion ; and the more so, as above three hundred thousand free people 
besides, were there doomed to habitual ignominy, to degradation and 
contempt, merely because the boasting white man had found them 
" guilty of a skin not coloured like his own I" To designate this as 
simply a prejudice against colour, was seen to be a prostitution of 
terms, it being, in fact, a state of mind combining haughtiness and 
disdain, in their meanest and most execrable forms, and standing out 
in strange contrast even with Brazil. * 

Thus, however vast the field of misery and crime, the Society 
could not for a moment hesitate where they were bound to begin 
their operations. It was in the land as guilty as our own had been, but 
where, deeds which Britain has never perpetrated, have too long been 
sanctioned and defended ; — the land, where, with the declaration daily 
in their mouths, " that all men are born equal, and are endowed with 
certain inalienable rights" they hold two millions three hundred thou- 
sand of the species in bondage; carry on without a sigh a system of 
inter-national slavery ; and, what is far more dreadful, have interwoven 
slavery, and all its inseparable abominations, with the divine and 
merciful system of Christianity itself ; — the land, where man is the 
absolute property of his fellow-man, an article of barter or of sale, a 
chattel personal, not ranked among accountable beings ; — the land, 
where slavery is hereditary, and where the children of a slave-mother, 
though the father be a white, are doomed to perpetual vassalage ; 
where, therefore, parents are selling their own children, and where even 
females are sold by weight, and in exchange for animals of the brute 
creation ; — the land, too, where, in one of its most populous and 
powerful states, the punishment for the second offence of teaching 
blacks in a Sabbath school, is death! where, in all their Slave States, 
the benefits of education are withheld, and in most of them, fines, 
whipping, and imprisonment, are the penalties imposed upon those 
who dare to adopt any means of enlightening the black or coloured 
population ; — the land, in short, where every rising sun witnesses 
two hundred infants born into this dreadful state of hopeless bondage, 
and where, therefore, in one single year, about as many hapless 
souls are added to the millions enslaved, as are taken from Africa by 
the slave traders of all other nations ! 

Whether there has been any such outrage against humanity in past 
ages, we need not inquire ; but when the light, the civilization, and, 
above all, the Christianity of America are taken into the account, it 
certainly has no parallel under Heaven at the present moment. 

After such a scene had been unfolded, will it be believed, that, by 
the lips of a single human being in this country, the inquiry was 
ever whispered, " But have we any right to interfere ?" The timid 
only, or those who are themselves the slaves of a sinful expediency, 

• Where, as soon as the Mulatto or Negro is freed, he becomes eligible to 
all offices, and, in the eye of the law, is equal to the white — where the hand of 
the Negro officer comes in contact with that of royalty itself, — and where he 
escapes in one day from that dire proscription which disgraces the boasted 
freedom of the United States ; a proscription which will invariably raise the 
finger of scorn to their Declaration of Independence. 



PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 



5 



must have been the parties who could, for one moment, pause with 
regard to right, nay, and imperative duty, in such a heart-rending 
case as this. Perhaps, however, even the scrupulous may be helped 
out of their cold hesitation, when they are informed, that the friends 
of Negro emancipation in Great Britain had already been appealed 
to, and implored by inhabitants of America itself; and that before any 
effort had been put forth by this country, it had been urgently invited. 
" It is impossible," said the appeal from New England, " it is im- 
possible that the British people, standing, as they now are, upon the 
neck of colonial slavery, — it is impossible for them to consider their 
work at an end, while there remains a human being held as a chattel 
under the whole heavens. Dear friends ! surely you will do some- 
thing in our behalf, being assured, that any sacrifice you may make, 
will, like good seed sown in good ground, produce at least an hun- 
dredfold." 

In these deeply interesting and affecting circumstances, Mr 
George Thompson, in every respect so highly qualified for proceed- 
ing to the United States, having been cordially and unanimously in- 
vited on the same day (the 7th October 1833), by the Emancipa- 
tion Societies of Edinburgh and Glasgow to undertake this arduous 
mission, he at once acceded to their request, embarked for America, 
and safely arrived in New York on the 19th of September 1834. 
It may also be mentioned, that the path for his proceeding thither 
was made still more plain by the following statement on the part of 
the New England Anti- Slavery Society. 

"The New England Anti-Slavery Society believing that, at the present 
moment, no more efficient plan can be adopted to promote the freedom of the 
Negroes in the United States, than that which has proved so eminently suc- 
cessful in Great Britain, namely, the employment of eloquent and intelligent 
agents, have invited Mr George Thompson to become their lecturer. The 
Anti-Slavery party in the United States, though increasing in number, is, 
however, scattered and poor, and greatly overburdened by their past efforts 
and sacrifices. The wealth and influence of the nation are arrayed against it. 
They therefore need the pecuniary assistance of Great Britain as much as her 
sympathy. Would she be generous enough to support Mr Thompson during 
his mission, say for three years, the Society might say to their fellow-coun- 
try, ' He who is come among us, seeks not to obtain our money but our 
hearts : he will not burden us to the amount of a farthing. All he asks for 
himself is a friendly reception, and a patient and a candid hearing.' 

" It is confidently believed that this sacrifice, which, if divided among many, 
will not be felt, will be cheerfully and gladly made." 

While Mr Thompson remained in the United States, he delivered 
between two and three hundred public lectures, besides innumerable 
shorter addresses in committees, conventions, associations, &c. 
He left behind him from a thousand to twelve hundred ministers of 
the Gospel enlisted in the cause of immediate emancipation, — new- 
societies organising weekly, — a great number of newspapers and 
periodicals pleading for the oppressed and down-trodden coloured 
population, — and every day witnessing fresh accessions of moral 
energy to the cause of humanity. He quitted the chosen field of his 
labours on the 8th of November last, but not without various testi- 
monies to the effects produced. One may suffice, from that intre- 



6 



PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 



pid and successful advocate in the cause of human rights, William 
Lloyd Garrison : — " In spite of persecution and reproach, you 
have accomplished the work of years in a single year. Your mission 
has been owned and blessed of God. It has shaken the nation to its 
centre. It has opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of 
the deaf, and raised from moral corruption the dead. Thousands 
have been converted, and a multitude of associations formed through 
your instrumentality — O how closely do the ties of love bind you 
to our hearts ! How many are the prayers that will be offered to 
God for your safety and deliverance from every evil !" 

Mr Thompson having proceeded by way of St John's, New 
Brunswick, embarked on board of a British vessel for Liverpool, 
where he arrived on the 4th of January, and on the 12th was hap- 
pily joined by his family, who had left New York on the 16th of 
December. 

In every place which he has since visited he has been met by the 
same unanimous testimony of encouraging and heart-felt approba- 
tion ; and now, whether, upon his return to this City, he was not 
hailed by all ranks, and by persons of every denomination, as having 
full well accomplished a great Christian duty, and hastened the arri- 
val of a day, to be remembered by future ages on the American con- 
tinent with more of reason, and more of heart-felt gratitude, than 
even the anniversary of their own independence, — let the readers of 
the following pages judge. 

The reader will here see, that even now, so far from all being 
dark or hopeless in the United States as to the entire abolition of 
Slavery there, its doom is fixed ; — that the undaunted friends of im- 
mediate abolition, male and female, have already made more personal 
sacrifices, than the people of this country were ever called to do, 
during their long-protracted struggle. He may see the dawning of 
a day, which will not set till the last link that binds the slave is 
broken ; and he may now safely anticipate, that the men of the south, 
who now talk so exceeding proudly, must at last yield or change 
their, minds, bowing before the potent influence of public opinion, 
and the sense of shame. Many of them will ; and, if others do not, 
before they close their eyes in death, they will probably hear their 
very children, in prospect of the event, unite with our own poet and 
say— 

" I would not have a slave to till my ground, 
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, 
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth 
That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd." 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

PRELIMINARY NOTICE, 3 

MR THOMPSON'S ARRIVAL IN EDINBURGH, . . . . 9 

Resolutions of Committee op Edinburgh Emancipation Society, 9 

MR THOMPSON'S FIRST LECTURE, 10 

SECOND LECTURE, 14 

RESOLUTIONS OF EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION SOCIETY, 16 
MR THOMPSON'S THIRD LECTURE, . . . . . .17 

GREAT MEETING IN THE WATERLOO ROOMS, ... 17 
Speech of the Lord Provost, . . . . . . . .18 

. ... James Craufurd, Esq .18 

the Rev. A. Bennte, 21 

the Rev. W. Lindsay Alexander, M.A 23 

James Mo ncreiff, Esq. . 26 

Bailie Macfarlan, 27 

Mr Thompson, .28 

MR THOMPSON'S FOURTH LECTURE, 31 

MEETING IN THE HOPETOUN ROOMS, . . . . . 32 

MR THOMPSON'S FIFTH LECTURE, 34 

SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS IN HONOUR OF MR THOMPSON, 36 

Speech of Dr Greville, LL.D., F. R. S. ..... 37 

Address to Mr Thompson, 39 

Speech of the Rev. A. Liddell, 40 

the Rev. William Peddie, 43 

Mr Thompson in Reply, . . . . . . 45 

(second) of Mr Thompson, 48 

of the Rev. C. Anderson, . . . . . . .49 



EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION SOCIETY. 



(fTommitlrr 

Rev. Christopher Anderson. 
Rev. Wm. Anderson, Loanhead. 
Rev. William Goold. 
Rev. E. Halley, Leith. 
Rev. Professor Paxton. 
Rev. Dr Peddle. 
Rev. William Peddie. 
Rev. Dr John Ritchie. 
W. Alexander, Leith. 
James Bremner. 
Peter Brown. 
John Campbell of Carbrook. 
Alexander Cruickshank. 
Edward Cruickshank. 
Henry David Dickie. 



Johx Dickie, W. S. 
Hon. H. D. Erskine. 
George Inglis, Jun. 
John Mac Andrew, S.S.C. 
James Martin. 
James Ogilvy. 
William Oliphant, Sen. 
T. R. Robertson, W. S. 
Captain Rose. 
W. Somerville, Sen. 
Charles Spence, S.S.C. 
Patrick Tennent, W. S. 
James B. Tod. 
John Wigham, Jun. 
George Wilson. 



William Somerville, Jun. 
Henry Tod, W. S. 



Secretaries. 



William Oliphant, Jun. Treasurer. 



Uatnes' Committee. 



Miss Alexander. 

Mrs Anderson. 

Miss Bayne. 

Mrs Dr Beilby. 

Miss B. Bonar. 

Mrs Brown. 

Mrs Cruickshank. 

Mrs Edward Cruickshank. 

Miss Cruickshank. 

Miss Grant. 

Miss M. Grant. 



Mrs Macandrew. 
Mrs William Miller. 
Mrs Nimmo. 
Mrs W. Renton. 
Mrs Dr Ritchie. 
Miss Spence. 
Miss Tod. 

Miss Margaret Tod. 
Miss Webster. 
Mrs Wigham. 
Mrs Wilson. 



Hon. Mrs Erskine, Secretary. 
Miss Viner, Treasurer. 



A VOICE 

FROM THE 

METROPOLIS OF SCOTLAND. 



MR THOMPSON'S ARRIVAL IN EDINBURGH. 

On reaching this City, Mr Thompson's first meeting was with the joint- 
committees of the Edinburgh Emancipation Societies. The proceedings 
are reported in the following article taken from the Scotsman Newspaper 
of the 30th of January, W. Alexander, Esq. of Leith, being in the 
chair. 

Mr George Thompson, the highly esteemed and intrepid advocate of 
human freedom, arrived in this city last Tuesday evening, and on Wed- 
nesday he was met by the Ladies and Gentlemen forming the Committees 
of the Edinburgh Emancipation Society, in the Saloon of the Royal Hotel. 
The statement then given by Mr Thompson with regard to himself, through- 
out his visit to the United States, was to everyone present far more than 
satisfactory. Of his every movement they highly approved, while his 
account of America in regard to the subject of slavery, and the prospect 
of its ultimate extinction, was at once deeply affecting, and most en- 
couraging. At the close of his narrative, the following Resolutions pro- 
posed by the Rev. Christopher Anderson of Edinburgh, and seconded 
by the Rev. William Anderson of Loanhead, were unanimously adopt- 
ed by both the Committees in union, as conveying their sentiments on 
the first occasion on which they enjoyed the pleasure of meeting with 
their friend. 

I. That it is with feelings of sincere delight and satisfaction, mingled with those of 
the most poignant regret, that we have listened to the statements now given, by our 
most esteemed friend Mr George Thompson — of delight and satisfaction, on seeing 
himself amongst us once more, in perfect safety and in health — but of painful regret at 
the occasion of his returning so much sooner than it was intended, both by himself and 
by us, from the United States of America. 



JO 



RESOLUTIONS OF COMMITTEE. 



II. That while we have deprecated from the beginning, as we now do once more, the 
most remote idea, of interfering with any single state, or city, or village throughput 
America, in the arrangement or management of their own institutions, still, as 
we consider it at once an act of duty and of kindness, to hold up before all men the 
great principles of truth, and justice, and humanity, and regarding the prevalence of 
slavery, as involving the habitual violation of a law infinitely above all human arrange- 
ments — we cannot but deeply deplore, that in a country where our common language 
is spoken, and loudly demanding to be acknowledged as the home of the free, the spirit, 
of persecution against those who merely plead the cause of the oppressed, should have 
risen to a height which has abridged, if not endangered, all freedom of discussion. 

III. That as God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face 
of the earth, and hath Himself determined also the bounds of their habitation, we re- 
gard the prejudice against colour, which has been nursed and cherished for ages through- 
out the United States, with greater pain and abhorrence than ever — as not merely the 
fruitful and disgusting source of crime, but of itself alone a daring and contemptuous pro- 
vocation of our common Creator and final Judge. 

IV. That the signal preservation of our valued friend Mr Thompson amidst all the 
violence and malignity of the abettors of American slavery, and the measure of success 
by which his faithful, zealous, and unwearied efforts have been crowned, call alike 
for our devout acknowledgments, regarding them as equal tokens of his having been 
engaged in a righteous cause ; and that we can now entertain no doubt of the day ap- 
proaching when, far from being stigmatised as an intruding foreigner, or a foe to har- 
mony and peace, he will be hailed by the moral and upright, the humane and chris- 
tian citizens of America, as a man who sought only to avert a catastrophe from which 
his native land had happily been delivered, and which America, with all her resources, 
has now suchjust reason both to dread and to deprecate. 

V. That with regard to the great cause of human freedom, from the statements given 
by Mr Thompson, as well as from other sources of information to which we have had 
access during his absence, even in the United States we not only find many encourage- 
ments to persevere, but in the pure spirit of devotion to the cause evinced by many in 
that great country, we discover sufficient ground to hope that the progress of America 
towards universal emancipation, will proceed with accelerated steps, till the rod of the 
oppressor shall be broken, till there is not one house of bondage on her soil, and Ame- 
rica, in the judgment of other nations, becomes fairly entitled to her claim of being the 
Land of the Free. 

VI. That with feelings of strong sympathy, respect, and increased affection towards 
all those American citizens, both male and female, who, far from shrinking, have re- 
mained firm and undaunted, — we feel called upon to remember them before the God of 
righteousness and peace, with whom all the swellings of human passion are as nothing ; 
that He may continue to preserve them, and enable us to persevere in the great cause 
of universal emancipation, to which we now stand, more than ever, bound to adhere. 

At the close of the meeting-, thanks were returned to God, for his most 
merciful preservation of Mr Thompson and his family, as well as for their 
safe return, after his having accomplished so much in such a limited pe- 
riod. 



MR THOMPSON'S FIRST LECTURE. 
Mr Thompson's first public lecture was delivered in Dr Peddie's Chapel, 
Bristo Street, on Thursday evening-, January 28th. In consequence of 
the unprecedented anxiety to hear the details of Mr Thompson's trials and 
successes in the United States, the Committee deemed it necessary to re- 
gulate the admission by tickets, sold at various shops in the city. The 
propriety of this measure was fully apparent on the evening- of the lecture, 



mr Thompson's first lecture. 



LI 



when the house was crowded to repletion in every part, and a great num- 
ber of applications for admission refused at the gates of the building. 
The following account appeared in the Scotsman, already quoted. 

On Thursday evening, a public meeting of the Edinburgh Emancipa- 
tion Society, and its friends, was held in the Rev. Dr Peddie's Chapel, 
Bristo Street, when Mr Thompson gave an account of his Anti-Slavery 
Mission to the United States of America. — The admission to the meeting 
was by tickets, sixpence each — each ticket admitting two persons, and 
as there were upwards of a thousand of these sold, there must have been 
more than two thousand persons present. We know, also, that a great 
many persons were disappointed in procuring tickets, so speedily were 
they all disposed of. About seven o'clock, Mr Thompson made his ap- 
pearance in the pulpit, and was received with several distinct rounds of 
the most enthusiastic applause. John Wigham Jun. Esq. was called to 
the chair, and in opening the meeting, said, that from the manifestations 
which he had just witnessed, he was sure they were all animated by one 
common feeling of delight and satisfaction to find that their able and dis- 
tinguished friend Mr Thompson had performed the object of his mission 
so energetically and successfully, and that he had returned to them in 
safety, under the extraordinary circumstances in which he had been 
placed. (Great cheering.) 

Mr Thompson then rose, and was received with a fresh burst of applause. He should 
not, he said, attempt to describe the feelings of satisfaction with which he gazed 
upon the large and intelligent audience which he beheld assembled once more within 
these well known walls, for the purpose of listening to him who had now the honour to 
appear before them, and to hear from his lips the progress of those principles which 
they had there together enunciated and espoused, and the triumph of which they 
had there together celebrated. He dared not trust himself even to attempt an ex- 
pression of the joy and gratitude which filled his bosom, when he beheld them still feel- 
ing a deep interest in the cause of human freedom, and found that not only had they not 
deserted that cause, but that they were rallying in even greater numbers around the 
standard which they, in by-gone days, had planted and promised to sustain, while 
there was a fetter on the heel of a single human being on the face of the globe. 
(Loud cheering.) He begged to assure the meeting that his own attachment to 
the cause which he had the honour to advocate remained undiminished — and not 
only so, but that it had never even wavered or been weakened ; that it still continued 
as strong as ever, and that what he had witnessed in a far off land, had but the more 
deeply convinced him of the potency and omnipotence of those principles by the 
advocacy and enforcement of which we had succeeded in slaying the monster on our own 
borders ; that it had only more deeply convinced him that nothing was wanting but the 
unceasing, the persevering publication of those principles, to put an end to slavery 
wherever it curses the soil and degrades humanity on the face of the earth. (Immense 
applause.) He had that night to draw their attention to the subject of slavery in 
the United States of America — to the incongruous institution of domestic slavery 
in a land of freedom. He wished it to be understood that they were not met there 
that night, guided and influenced by a mere desire to know what was going on in the 
United States, as a matter of mere history of contemporaneous events ; but that they 
were there to feel a deep interest upon many grounds, in the great question of human 
rights which was now agitating that wide spread territory. (Cheers.) The history 
of the Anti- Slavery question in America was deeply interesting, as developing the best, 
the holiest, and the mightiest means of carrying forward a moral revolution ; by the 
simple enunciation of the principles, the supremacy of which was sought to be obtain- 
ed, without resorting to physical violence ; by the simple action of man upon man ; by 
opinion operating upon opinion : bv merely enlisting the pulpit, the press, and the plat- 

A 2 



12 



aiR Thompson's first lecture. 



form, in the work of that reformation. (Cheers.) The history of the American sla- 
very question was as interesting as it was plain, as displaying the mighty influence of 
truth when outspoken and fearlessly enunciated, without regard to human wisdom or 
expediency : these having been the means by which a mighty change had been effected 
in America in n ference to this question — a change so mighty that, he might venture 
without hesitation to say, no change so great, without the interference of miraculous 
power, had ever been effected in any era of the world. (Great cheering.) He re- 
prated that it had been effected not by human wisdom, by rank, nor wealth, nor poli- 
tics, nor learning, nor expediency, but by the mighty lever which is fated to overturn 
the world, and place it as it should stand, with its apex upwards — it washy " the fool- 
ishness of preaching.'' (Great applause.) That was the mighty agency which had 
been employed in America. The history of the Anti-Slavery question was also highly 
interesting, as bringing us acquainted with some of the noblest specimens of human 
nature — with some of the boldest and purest Reformers that ever lived. He spoke un- 
hesitatingly when he said so ; and he should demonstrate the truth of this assertion ere 
he left the subject. He begged to state, that he was not there that night to make the 
gulf of feeling and sentiment between Great Britain and America wider than it is — he 
was not there to publish an act of divorce between them — but to unite them in one 
common object, one common sympathy, one common principle, and one common plan, 
to put an end to shivery wherever it exists. He wanted to bring the friends of the 
slave in this country, in contact with the noble and sublime spirits who were waiting 
to embrace them over the blue waters of the Atlantic, and to join them in one indisso- 
luble compact never to relax their moral energy, until they shall have seized the pillars 
of the blood-stained fabric which despotism has reared, and, like another Samson, 
brought it to the ground. (Tremendous cheers.) Oh ! it was something — and it was 
his rich reward — to become acquainted with men in a distant country, having one com- 
mon language and one common ancestry, working with us in the same common cause ; 
it was something to know that the wilderness of waters did not divide us ; that we are 
one in principle ; one in faith ; one in effort ; that we have the same common object in 
this world, and the same anticipations hereafter ; it was something, he said, to know 
that we were engaged with these wise, holy, and uncompromising men in America, in 
accelerating the cause of Universal Emancipation. (Great applause.) It was not alone 
the cause of Anti-Slavery in which he was embarked ; it was the cause of Anti-Igno- 
rance — the cause of anti-everything which degrades, crushes, withers, and destroys the 
spirits of mankind. Again, once more ; the question was interesting, because in its 
development it made us acquainted with the men and women engaged in it ; their prin- 
ciples and their conduct ; and thus called upon us first to admire them, next to com- 
mend them, next to imitate them, and adopt the principles by which on the other side 
of the Atlantic they advance the great work. The Anti- Slavery question in this 
country was very different from that in America ; the struggle was never so sublime 
here as he had witnessed in America — our sacrifices were never so great ; our tempta- 
tions to swerve were never so strong ; our interests when at the closest were never so 
close, a? in the United States. It was never necessary that we should suffer in our 
reputation ; that we should lose our friends ; the value of our property be deteriorated ; or 
that we should be deprived of the substance and amount of our profitable trade. But 
hard as this was, those now engaged in carrying on this cause in America — men and 
women without exception — were subjected to it, and sustained by high religious prin- 
ciple, thev firmly bore up against all these accumulated evils ; and nothing lower, and 
nothing less, than that mighty principle could sustain them in a cause, by espousing 
which they had every thing to lose, and nothing but infamy to gain. (Cheers.) He 
stood there not to defame America. 'Twas true they had persecuted him ; but that was 
a small matter ; 'twas true they had hunted him like a partridge on the mountains ; that 
he had to lecture with the assassin's knife glancing before his eyes ; and his wife and 
his little ones in danger of falling by the ruthless hands of murderers. All this was 
true, and much more, but he came not there to tell of aught that he had suffered or 
done, except in so far as it illustrated the progress of the mighty reformation to which 
he had alluded. (Cheers,) He dared not speak slightingly of America. 'Twas true 
he hated her sins — but 'twas not less true he loved her sons. His object was not to 
overthrow the institutions of America, and bring her constitution into disrepute. Sla- 
very might sink, and that constitution still live ; slavery might fall, and that constitu- 
tion stand ; slavery might die and be buried in a grave of infamy, covered with the 
execrations of mankind, and witness no resurrection, and yet the constitution of America 



MR THOMPSON 6 FIRST LECTURE. 



13 



stand out iu unsullied, and more than pristine beauty, and become the blessing of the 
world. (Great cheers.) He should like to have an opportunity to speak of America 
in other respects ; to speak of her as being exalted in arms, and as rich in wealth ; 
to speak of her extended commerce — of her agriculture — of her unparalleled 
means of education — with the volume of Revelation in the hands of all her fami- 
lies but those of her degraded bondsmen ; with the ordinances of religion in abundance ; 
of her 15,000 ministers, and of her Missionary exertions; on all these he could dwell 
with pleasure, after he had discussed the question of slavery. But the damning plague- 
spot of America, Christian America, Republican America, America, the land of Bibles, 
and Tracts and Missionary societies, America, who boasted herself in being the freest 
country on the face of the globe, was slavery ! America had her slave ships — types of 
Pandemonium — gliding on the surface of the ocean, and put forth her presumptuous 
hand and traded in the lives and the souls of men ! (Cheers.) Would it be believed 
that the slaves formed a sixth part of the American population ; every sixth man or 
woman was a slave — their bodies, their souls, their skill, their energy, their posterity, 
their every thing was under the dominion of slavery. It was not true that the slave 
trade was abolished in America; slave auctions were still to be seen — men and women 
were still to be seen sold like so many cattle. It was to abolish that system he went 
to America. He did not deny that the weavers of Paisley, that the peasantry of Ireland, 
and many others of our countrymen, were occasionally bordering on starvation. He could 
not deny this ; but these individuals, poor and miserable as they were, were still free ; to 
them the wheel of fortune was still revolving ; the starving of to-day were not the star- 
ving of to-morrow ; hope beamed on all ; they may die, but they bequeath liberty to 
their children, and they, guided by the way-marks which their parents had missed — be- 
came the favourites of fortune, and rose to honour, competence, and prosperity. He 
did not seek to exempt the slaves from poverty ; he wanted only to give them freedom. 
(Great cheering.) But this was not his only mission to America ; he went also to at- 
tack a sin not surpassed by slavery — the simple prejudice that prevails against colour. 
So deep was this prejudice, tbat the coloured people were denied a pew in the church, a 
place in the cabin of a steam-boat, or the interior of a coach ; the body is even denied 
a corner in the usual place of repose for the dead ; and they would deny the soul a 
place in heaven if they could. The first thing to be done in America, is to plead for 
the slave as for a man ; to establish his title to humanity ; and make him stand out 
before their eyes as a human being. There was one test which he always applied to a 
man about whose title to the full honours of human nature there was some dispute. He 
asked not of his clime, his colour, or his stature, of the texture of his hair, or the con- 
formation of his limb ; he asked not if he issued from the majestic portals of a palace, 
or from the humble door of a West Indian negro hut — he asked but one question, 
" Could he love his God ? " And if that was answered in the affirmative, then he 
recognised his humanity, claimed him as a brother, and elevated him to the position 
which he himself occupied. (Tremendous cheering. ) 

Well, how did he go to America ? He went without name and without influence, 
and without wealth. Well, did he flatter them ? No. He could not call them the 
freest people, for he did not believe it ; be did not call them the wisest people, for he 
had left Edinburgh, and he could not say so. (Laughter and cheers.) After de- 
scribing the reception he had received, Mr Thompson proceeded to say, he had been 
frowned upon, sneered at, and pitied. Even in Edinburgh, he understood, he had 
been called an amiable enthusiast — a title which he begged to disclaim. An en- 
thusiast was one who sought to obtain an end without using the means ; and there- 
fore the term applied more to the person that used it than to him. He (Mr Thomp- 
son) went leaning upon the arm of the Almighty, and trusting in the enunciation 
of truth, believing that God is ever with the truth, and in the truth, and that the truth 
is God. He was not an enthusiast, therefore, who by the enunciation of truth seeks 
to overcome prejudice, and interest, and superstition, but he is an enthusiast who seeks 
those ends without using the means. (Cheers.) Mr T. went on to shew the degraded 
state of the American slaves, and that even Church dignitaries and ministers were 
slaveholders. One of the Professors, he said, put to some slaves the revolting question 

of whose are you ? One answered 1 belong to Mr , and another said I am Mr Sueh- 

a-one's, and another said I am the Congregation's. This was explained by stating that 
certain pious persons bequeathed their slaves to the Church by way of endowment, to 
keep up the preaching of the Gospel ! And it was well known that no slaves were so 
wretched as those that belong to the Congregation, which arose from their beiDg hired 



11 



mr Thompson's second lecture. 



out like hacks tor short periods of three or six months to persons, who, having no inte- 
rest in their future welfare, only strived how they could make most out of them for the 
time. He affirmed also that the slaves were denied the blessings of religion, and that 
in the State of Louisiana the second " offence'' of teaching a slave to read was punish- 
ed with death. To shew that the slave trade still existed, he stated that in the district 
of Columbia, the licence for dealing in slaves was 400 dollars, and that the revenue de- 
rivable from this source was applied to the formation of canals and the education of the 
white youth of Washington ! In this same district, a poor man was taken up on suspi- 
cion of being a slave ; he was advertised as such, but no one came forward to claim him. 
In these circumstances what did his oppressors do ? Did they give him compensation 
for false imprisonment ? No, he was put up to public auction, and sold to be a slave for 
life to pay his jail fees ! (Great sensation.) After some farther illustrations of Ameri- 
can slavery, Mr Thompson turned from what he called the dark side of the picture, and 
shewed the rapid progress winch the principle of slave abolition was making in the num- 
ber of Societies embarked in the cause, and the extensive funds raised in collections for 
promoting it, into which particulars we have neither time nor space to enter. 

At the conclusion of the lecture, the Rev. Dr Ritchie stated that the committee, 
instead of calling upon the meeting to adopt any formal resolutions on that occasion 
respecting the character and conduct of Mr Thompson, considered it better to draw up 
the resolutions leisurely, and bring them forward at next meeting. 

The meeting then separated about half-past nine o'clock. 

The above is a very faint sketch of Mr Thompson's lecture, which occu- 
pied two hours and a half in the delivery, and was received throughout 
with the most rapturous applause. 



MR THOMPSON'S SECOND LECTURE. 
Mr Thompson's second lecture was delivered in the Rev. Dr John 
Brown's Chapel, Broughton Place, before a very crowded and highly 
respectable auditory. John Wigham Jun. Esq. in the Chair. 

Mr Thompson, who, on his appearance in the pulpit, was rapturously applauded as 
usual, proceeded to take up the subject where he had left off on the former night. He 
-went on to describe the fierce opposition which the question and its supporters had met 
with from the Americans. He stated, that the Senate of Georgia had offered a reward 
of 5000 dollars for the head of Mr W. L. Garrison, for promulgating what was de- 
scribed in the American constitution as self-evident truths, that God had made all men 
equal, and endowed them with equal rights, any infringement of which, obedience to 
the laws of nature and of God called upon them to resist. These doctrines the Ame- 
ricans were the fust to enunciate to the world, and yet the Senate of Georgia offered 
5000 dollars for the head of Mr Garrison, for advocating them. Mr T. then de- 
scribed the disturbances which took place in New York, in the month of July 1834, 
in consequence of an anti-slavery meeting having taken place, at which a few coloured 
people attended. The mob, he said, rose and governed the city for three days and 
nights ; a great deal of property was destroyed, and the house of a most respectable 
citizen sacked. A catalogue of the outrages perpetrated would take him all the even- 
ing even to refer to. Riots of a similar description had also taken place at several other 
places. Such was the state of things when he went to America. For several months 
his labours in the Northern States excited little attention in the South. Paragraphs 
concerning him appeared in the Northern papers, but the papers in the Southern States 
carefully excluded all notice of his movements. In the month of May following his 
arrival however, a large meeting of the National Anti- Slavery Society, took place in 
New York, at which the report of the Society was read. This report, which gave an 
account of no fewer than 250 active auxiliary societies scattered up and down the coun- 
try, fell like a thunderbolt upon the pro-slavery advocates. They rose like one man, 
with the determination of putting down the abolitionist by every means in their power 
and mutilation, plunder, and murder, became the order of the day throughout more 
Shan half of the United States. The mail bags were rifled in open day ; and no vessel 
was allowed to send their letters to the Post-office without the previous inspection of 
'^\he Committees of Vigilance," vhich had been appointed by the mob \ and every pa- 



MR THOMPSON'S SE EON D LECTURE. 



15 



per, letter, and pamphlet, in any way bearing upon the abolition question, was Keized and 
destroyed. Mr Thompson read numerous quotations from the anti-abolition news- 
papers, to shew the abusive language which was applied to the advocates of slave-eman- 
cipation, whom tbey recommended should all be hanged or otherwise disposed of in an 
equally summary manner. The quotation of the liberal mottoes of some of these pa- 
pers, along with the intolerant sentiments of their leading articles, created considerable 
sensation in the meeting, as indeed did the whole of the details of the disgraceful con- 
duct of the pro-slavery advocates in that land of boasted freedom. He stated that a 
Grand Jury in the county of Frederick, Alabama, had presented the Anti- Slavery So- 
ciety and the coloured population, as nuisances that ought to be abated by every possi- 
ble means ; and another grand jury in the same state had voted George Thompson 
a nuisance — (Great laughter) — along with J. G. Birney, W. L. Garrison, Arthur. 
Tappan, and Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish orator — (Renewed laughter and 
cheers) — for impertinent and unauthorized interference with the slaveholders in Ame- 
rica. Mr T. remarked that one part of the American constitution — the liberty of 
speech, and the liberty of the Press — was held to be unalterable by Congress ; not- 
withstanding which, there was nothing more common than for public meetings to recom- 
mend the legislature to put down certain prints, and to put to death certain individuals, 
who advocated the right of the slave, and lifted up their voice in behalf of the oppressed. 
He had also to arraign the Christian ministers of America as the most efficient support- 
ers of slavery. (Cries of " Shame.") He blushed to bring that charge forward, but 
they would not have a proper view of American slavery without it. Tbey had to hear, 
perhaps for the first time, that the ministers and elders of the respective bodies of Pres- 
byterians, Baptist, and Methodists, were the main pillars of that blood-stained fabric 
which it was the object of the abolitionists to pull down. (Repeated cries of " Shame.") 
If these parties would withdraw their countenance from slavery — if they would cease to 
preach the doctrines they now preach — if they would cease to participate in the gains 
of the system by which God's image is bought and sold in America, — slavery would not 
remain one year. (Great cheering.) This was a grave charge, and might appear 
strange to them, but that was not his fault, but the fault of the Americans, and the 
fault of Englishmen who had gone there, and come back here, and said nought about 
it. (Cheers.) Tbere was no want of persons to tell all that was good about America, 
but why did they not give both sides of the question ? It was time that men should 
learn to tell not only the truth but the whole truth. "While he should be ready to 
give America praise for being before us in many things, in this he must say they were 
far behind us, in that the clergy of all denominations were not only with the oppressor 
in sentiment, but were found the worst of oppressors. Mr Thompson then went at 
some length into the proof of these charges, of which it will be sufficient for us to say, 
that it was ample and unequivocal enough in all conscience. He then proceeded tc 
change the picture, and to shew the astonishing alteration which bad been effected re- 
cently, and the rapid progress wbich the cause was still making. More than 10G0 
ministers had already renounced their prejudices and pro-slavery sentiments, and de- 
clared themselves in favour of immediate emancipation. (Cheers.) There were already 
no fewer than 320 societies established in 14 or 15 of the American States. So great 
was tbe change among the Presbyterian body, that many Synods and Presbyteries were 
making abolition sentiments a condition of church membership ; and were refusing to 
allow a minister, being a slaveholder, to enter their pulpits. (Great cheering.) 
An equally gratifying change had been effected in the sentiments of the Episcopal Me- 
thodists, the Baptists, and Congregationalists, large numbers of whom were already 
acting efficiently in the cause. The Unitarians were also rising in favour of the ques- 
tion ; and the celebrated Dr Channing had recently come out with a work in favour 
cf the principles of immediate and entire emancipation. One of the most cheering 
evidences of the progress of the cause was perhaps to be found in the fact — that the 
colleges and seminaries of learning in America were fast becoming abolitionized. 
(Cheers.) Mr T. also produced a number of newspapers which were favourable to the 
cause, besides monthly and quarterly periodicals, annuals, and even almanacs, of every 
shape and size. Tbere were also, he said, Anti-Slavery pictures and poetry published, 
Anti- Slavery fancy sales held, and petitions got up in all parts of the north. There 
were also Anti- Slavery church conferences, and prayer meetings in abundance ; and 
fifty Anti- Slavery agents were travelling through the country and lecturing on the sub- 
ject. In this country we had never had above four or five agents. Mr Thompson 
concluded by earnestly urging upon one and all the necessity of being active in tte 



16 



II E SOLUTIONS OF EMANCIPATION SOCIETY. 



work of universal emancipation, by prayer to God, by the exercise of their personal 
influence with their friends in America, and with the Americans who come to this coun- 
try. Seven years, he believed, would not elapse ere Slavery would be abolished in Ame- 
rica — for the die was already cast, the blow was struck, the day had dawned: and so 
sure as God reigns, so sure would the principles which He had already blessed — so 
marvellously blessed — so surely would those principles overthrow the accursed system 
of slavery, (Great cheering.) 



RESOLUTIONS OF EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION SOCIETY. 

At the conclusion of the lecture the following resolutions were j)roposed 
by the Rev. John Ritchie, D.D., seconded by William Alexander, Esq. 
of Leith, and carried amidst loud acclamations : viz. 

I. After what has been now and formerly stated by Mr George Thompson, we 
are fully persuaded that he has in spirit, procedure, and success, exceeded the most 
sanguine anticipations of the Emancipation Society — that, by his firmness and prudence, 
zeal and perseverance, in advocating the cause of the Bondsman in the United States, 
he has amply redeemed every pledge given by him to the friends of human freedom, 
by whom he was deputed — that, amidst obloquy, peril, and physical violence, he con- 
tinued to persevere in the high enterprise, until, by the verdict of transatlantic friends, 
the best judges in this matter, his remaining longer would, without promoting the cause, 
have compromised his own safety. We acknowledge the good hand of Providence 
that has been around him, bid him cordial welcome to his native shore, renew our 
expressions of confidence in him as a talented Advocate of the Liberties of Man, and 
trust that a suitable field may soon be opened up for the renewal of his exertions. 

II. We deeply sympathise with our Anti- slavery friends in the United States, under 
the persecutions to which they have been subjected. We would remind them, that 
their persecutors are the libellers of the American Constitution, which proclaims the 
equal rights of all men, while they withhold from 2,000,000 of their fellow citizens 
every natural right, and persecute the preachers of the doctrines of the Constitution. 
That they are the libellers of their Maker, since they found their injustice on that co- 
lour of skin which God has given to the Negro. That in this, if in any cause, our 
friends may boldly say, greater is "He that is with us, than all that can be against 
us." We congratulate them on the rapid advance of their cause, exhort them to press 
onwards, and bid them God speed. 

III. We remember with delight the claims of common Parentage, Language and 
Interests, and rejoice in the many Institutions, Religious and Philanthropic, by which 
America is signalised ; and view, with corresponding regret and condemnation, the 
support given to Slavery by Christian professors, Ministers, and Churches, and would 
adjure them by our common Christianity, and the public shame, thus put upon it, to 
weigh their conduct in the balance of the Sanctuary — to give up their horrid traffic in 
the Bodies and Souls of men — to put away from among them the accursed thing, to 
redeem the past, by awaking to righteousness, by emancipating and evangelizing their 
sable fellow citizens, and thus do homage to Him who hath made of one blood all na- 
tions of men. 

IV. For ourselves, we hail the speedy answer of our prayers, and realization of our 
hopes, in the Emancipation of all the Slaves in the United States — we discern it in 
the fears and wrath of the Slaveholders — in the absence of moral argument, and in the 
melancholy substitute, riot and bloodshed. We descry it in the Labours of a Garrison, 
the Sacrifices of a Tappan, the fermenting leaven of Theological Seminaries, the 
Christian Heroism of Female Advocates, and in the 320 Anti-Slavery Societies that 
have grown to maturity within the short space of a year, and especially in the moral 
character of the cause as that of Truth — of Patriotism — of Man — of God — and we 
pledge ourselves, by every moral and Scriptural motive, to adjure every friend of ours 
beyond the Atlantic, and all that may occasionally visit our land, to use every exertion 
to bring to a speedy and peaceful termination, a system so fearfully anomalous and sin- 
ful, and Heaven-provoking in a land where Gospel light so much abounds — for the 
past, we thank God, and for the future we take and bid all others take courage. 

JOHN WIGHAM Jun., Chairman. 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



17 



MR THOMPSON'S THIRD LECTURE. 
On Wednesday evening, February 3d, Mr Thompson delivered his third 
lecture, in the Rev. Dr Peddie's Chapel, Bristo Street, which was, as on 
the first occasion, crowded to overflowing. The Rev. Dr. John Ritchie 
was called to the Chair. The prejudice which exists among the Ameri- 
cans against people of colour, formed the chief topic of his lecture, and 
he gave a number of very interesting anecdotes in illustration of the ex- 
tent to which this absurd and unchristian feeling is carried in that country. 
At the conclusion of the lecture, which was at once eloquent and affecting, 
a gentleman named Fraser, a minister, we understand, from America, and 
who had lived for many years in the Southern States, rose and contra- 
dicted some of Mr Thompson's assertions respecting the conduct of the 
clergymen of that country in regard to slavery. He denied that they 
were so bad as represented by Mr Thompson ; but remarked, that the 
ministers had to be very cautious how they acted in regard to this sub- 
ject, as one minister he knew had been deposed in consequence of enter- 
taining anti-slavery opinions. Mr Thompson said, he was glad to hear 
him admit as much ; and reminded him, that if one minister was deposed 
for holding such sentiments the others must necessarily have held oppo- 
site sentiments, or they would have surely met a similar fate ; so that, by 
his (Mr F.'s) own admission, he (Mr T.) w T as quite right in stating that 
those Anti-Christian sentiments were, unhappily, held by a large majority 
of the ministers of America. Mr Fraser denied that religion had any- 
thing to do with slavery ; a sentiment, the falsity and absurdity of which 
Mr Thompson shewed up in a most triumphant manner. After a consi- 
derably lengthened discussion, during which the feelings of the meeting 
were greatly excited, Mr Fraser hastily left the church, and Mr Thompson 
was declared to have successfully maintained his position. The meeting 
separated about half-past eleven o'clock, the Chairman having first an- 
nounced, amidst great cheering, that arrangements were in progress for 
holding a public meeting of the Inhabitants of Edinburgh, on the subject 
of slavery in the United States. 



GREAT MEETING IN THE WATERLOO ROOMS. 

The above meeting was called by the following public advertisement : — 

" SLAVERY IN AMERICA." 
" A Public Meeting of the Inhabitants of Edinburgh will be held in the 
Waterloo Rooms, on Monday next, February 8, to express their sense of 
the Sinfulness and Degrading Tendency of Slavery, as it still unhap- 
pily exists in the United States of America." 

" The Right Honourable the Lord Provost will take the Chair at 
one o'clock." 

Long before the hour named for the commencement of the business, 
the spacious room was crowded with a most respectable audience, and 



18 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATEBLOO ROOMS. 



hundreds were compelled to retire without the gratification of listening 
to the very interesting- addresses which were delivered." 

On the platform were the Honourable Henry David Erskine ; Rev. 
Drs Dickson, Peddie, and Ritchie ; Rev. Messrs Grey, Bennie, Liddell, 
Johnston, French, C. Anderson, Robertson, Innes, Peddie, Goold, W. 
Anderson, Wilkes, Alexander, Thomson, &c.; James Craufurd and James 
Moncrieff, Esquires, Advocates ; Bailies Macfarlan and Sawers ; Trea- 
surer Black ; Councillors Duncan, Jameson, and Deuchar ; Dr Greville ; 
G. M. Torrance, Esq. of Kilsaintninian ; William Wemyss, Esq.; A. Mil- 
lar, Esq., Master of Merchant Company ; Patrick Tennent, Esq. W. S. ; 
Henry Tod, Esq. W. S. ; Captain Rose ; John Wigham Jun., Esq. ; 
Alex. Cruickshank, Esq. ; Geo. Thompson, Esq. ; and between forty and 
fifty other gentlemen. 

The Lord Provost, on taking the Chair, expressed his gratification at being called 
to preside over so very numerous and respectable a meeting of his fellow citizens. He 
rejoiced at being able to point to 800,000 of their fellow subjects delivered from gall- 
ing bondage in the British colonies. They were now met for no political purpose, but 
to express their views of the sinfulness and degrading tendency of slavery in the United 
States, a country calling itself free, but cursed with a population of more than two millions 
of wretched slaves. His friend near him (Mr Thompson) had recently returned from that 
country, having narrowly escaped with his life. He (Mr T.) would tell them more cor- 
rectly than he could do, what was the real character of that system which was the disgrace 
of America. He would not trespass upon the time of the meeting, as many eloquent and 
learned gentlemen were prepared to address them. He trusted the cause they had met 
to promote would speedily triumph. It was the cause of humanity, freedom, and religion, 
(Cheers.) In the course of the meeting the Lord Provost stated, that he had re- 
ceived a note from Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Baronet, expressing his regret that a 
particular engagement prevented him from being present. I can assure this meeting 
(observed his Lordship), that my fiiend Sir Thomas, feels a deep interest in the ob- 
ject for which we are assembled, his heart and soul are with us, and he cordially wishes 
us God speed. 

James Craufurd, Esq. Advocate, in rising to move the first Resolution, 
viz. — 

That this Meeting consider slavery, under every modification, and in every country, 
as opposed to the dictates of humanity, the prosperity of nations, and especially to the 
principles of the Christian religion. That, deeply sensible of their obligations to Provi- 
dence for removing from this nation the stigma of maintaining slavery, this Meeting feel 
called on, as free citizens of a Chiistian State, to use every lawful means for promoting 
die entire abolition of slavery in every quarter of the world, 

spoke to the following effect : — 

My Lord, I have been requested to move the first Resolution. I regret that it 
has not been intrusted to some one more capable of doing it justice ; but no one could 
propose it with more cordiality and sincerity. I cannot refrain from expressing my 
gratification at seeing the numerous and respectable meeting which has assembled on 
this interesting occasion — it is most encouraging — it is most refreshing, to see men of all 
varieties of Christian persuasion, of all opinions in politics, forget their minor dififer- 
«nces, and meet cordially and harmoniously on common ground, for the maintenance 
of common principles, for the promotion of a common cause. And it is one among 
the many good effects of a meeting like the present, that it tends to smooth the asperi- 
ties and to sweeten the intercourse of society ; and, by reminding us of the points 
wherein we agree, it teaches us all charity on the points wherein we differ. The time, 
my Lord, has not long gone by, when the question which we are met to consider pre- 
sented itself in a very different aspect. There are many, I doubt not, present, who 
remember when the slave. trade itself, with all its horrors, was protected and en« 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



19 



couraged by British law ; and they who ventured to denounce the disgraceful 
and inhuman traffic, were derided as visionary enthusiasts. It was at length 
put down by a patriotic Government ; but the system to which it had given birth, the 
degrading system of West Indian Slavery, continued up to a very recent period ; and 
when we met to express our deep sense of the guilt and the horrors of slavery, we met 
to condemn ourselves, to denounce a system in maintaining which we were ourselves 

participant we met to sympathise with those whom we ourselves, as a nation, had 

kept in misery and bondage. The burning blush of shame was on our cheeks, the sin 
was national, and every man felt the burden of it. But at length the cry of 800,000 
fellow creatures groaning under the iron yoke, aroused the sympathy and indignation of 
Englishmen. A small but glorious band of patriots, burning to wipe away the stain 
from their country's reputation — to vindicate the outraged rights of suffering humanity, 
commenced the agitation of this great question. At the head of this band was one 
whose name is identified with the progress of Christian civilization, who embraced the 
cause of the slave with zeal and fervour, because to him it was a question not of po- 
licy, but of conscience, who maintained it with unremitting ardour, and adhered to it 
even when hope seemed extinct, with unshrinking and unwavering constancy ; one 
whose long life was a continued series of efforts for the good of his fellow creatures, of 
labours for the promotion of peace, concord, and charity — for the diffusion of know- 
ledge, for the advancement of Christian truth, for the abolition of anti-Christian 
slavery Need I utter the name of Wilberforce — a name to every friend of free- 
dom, to every lover of his race, to every sincere professor of Christianity, carum et 
venerabile. I know not if, in the whole range of our public men, there has lived one 
entitled to a higher place in the annals of patriotism and philanthropy ; and when 
monarchs and their courtiers shall be consigned to a common oblivion — when the 
transient triumphs of partisanship are forgotten — when the blood-achieved laurels of 
the warrior have faded, the immortal name of this Christian patriot will be borne on- 
ward on the stream of time, amid the swelling glories of an ever-increasing reputation, 
embalmed in the grateful memories of thousands of emancipated brethren, inscribed on 
the brightest page of universal history, graven in enduring characters on the now stain- 
less scutcheon of the rescued honour of his country. The effoits of Wilberforce 
and his friends, among whom the pious and amiable Mr Buxton must not be forgotten, 
were completely successful in awakening the public mind to a strong sense of the guilt and 
the evils of slavery. Petitions against it loaded the tables of Parliament. But the people 
not being represented, their voice was disregarded. In vain was the iniquity, the cruelty, 
the unchristian tendency, and even the imminent danger of the system exposed ; in 
vain did the indignant eloquence of Brougham thunder in the ears of Parliament. 
Slavery still continued, and the Christian missionaries, in spite of their pious office and 
their blameless lives, were forced to fly from the roofless houses and blazing chapels of 
Demerara. But a great political change, to which it would be unbecoming in me more 
particularly to refer, then occurred. The Reform Bill passed into a law, the people were 
for the first time really represented, they demanded the abolition of slavery — the patriotic 
Ministers who had been the people's choice, responded to their call — His Most Gra- 
cious Majesty approved ; and the act of emancipation — (Cheers) — the noblest enact- 
ment which any Government ever proposed, or any monarch was ever privileged to 
sanction, became the law of the land ; the foul stain was wiped away from the charac- 
ter of British justice ; the galling shackles fell from the limbs of 800,000 human be- 
ings, and now yon glorious sun sees not a single slave throughout the wide realms of British 
dominion. (Great applause.) Ihave always felt that we were bound to set the slave free, 
whatever might be the practical difficulties, whatever mightbe the probable consequences of 
the measure ; but in so far as our experience has gone, Emancipation has proved to be 
really expedient, as well as undeniably just, and imperatively necessary. The effects of this 
great act of justice have, indeed, been most encouraging. Lord Mulgrave, a nobleman 
alike distinguished for ability and benevolence, presided over the momentous transition 
— all the evil forebodings of the supporters of slavery have been silenced, the colonies are 
more prosperous, the labourers more contented and peaceable, and, above all, the progress 
of moral cultivation — of Christian truth — has been greatly accelerated. And it gives me 
peculiar pleasure to observe, that, as a most worthy and appropriate sequel to the gift of 
freedom, and a recognition of the great moral and religious principles on which it was con- 
ferred, his Majesty's Government have given a grant of L. 10,000 to the London Mis- 
sionary Society for the education of the emancipated negroes. Are we not, I ask, under 
<>;reat obligations to the enlightened statesmen who have accomplished this truly noble task ' J 



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PUBLIC 3V1KBTING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



Ought wo not, I ask yet more emphatically, to feel the deepest gratitude to Almighty 
God for having so ordered events as to bring about this happy consummation. But 
having succeeded in extinguishing slavery at home, are we to proceed no farther, but 
remain contented, and calmly see it maintained in all its unmitigated horrors in other 
quarters of the globe, and particularly in America ; for, strange as it may appear, in 
that mighty Republic, in that land of political liberty, there are two millions of slaves, 
and the independent citizen who boasts of his own freedom keeps his fellow-creature 
in degrading bondage on account of the colour of his skin. Now, I admit that there 
are two classes of men who are not entitled to interfere, even by the expression of pub- 
lic opinion, in the question of slavery in America. 1st, Those who, taking their stand 
upon very narrow ground, have considered slavery as altogether a question of policy 
and expediency, for they must hold it a question of internal policy, with which no other 
nation has any concern, and they cannot consistently interfere. And, 2d, There are 
not a few who were silent on the subject of West Indian Slavery, who are now loud in 
protesting against slavery in America. What is it, I ask, that has effected this change 
in their views? Why were they silent when the consistent friends of freedom struggled 
in the cause of the West Indian slave ? Where slept the thunders of their wrath, when 
slavery was openly defended in their presence ; — when a Government, who refused 
emancipation, received their zealous aid — their unqualified support ? The truth is, they 
declaim against American slavery, not because they abhor slavery, but becaute they 
dislike America. With these men 1 for one will not co-opeiata. I denounce slavery 
not only as impolitic and inexpedient — not only as inconsistent with the Republican 
institutions of America, but as, in every form and in every land, inhuman, unnatural, 
and sinful ; and it is only on a deep conviction of the extreme sinfulness of slavery that, 
I think, we are at all warranted to enter our protest against it in America or in any 
other land but our own. There is much in America, in her laws, her energies, her in- 
stitutions, which the citizens of every free State, especially of England, are bound to 
respect ; and the land of Washington, and Franklin, and Abbot, and Channing, and 
Jay, must be dear to every friend of humanity. Our common origin, our common 
freedom, and, more than all, our common religion, unite us by the strongest and most 
endearing ties. It is not, therefore, from a dislike to America, but, on the contrary, 
from feelings of cordial esteem and of brother!}' regard, and from a sincere desire to pro- 
mote her best interests, that we endeavour to awaken her to the guilt and the evils of 
slavery. (Hear, hear.) I shall not at all touch on the cruelties perpetrated on the 
slaves — on the rigour with which they are treated — on the hardships which they are 
forced to endure — because, undeniable and appalling as they are, it is not on that ground 
that I take my stand. Select the best fed, and clothed, and tended slave that can be 
found, surround him with comforts, and provide for all his wants, still he is a slave, 
bought and sold as a marketable commodity ; and however he may be treated, he who 
keeps him in bondage, or he who acquiesces in his bondage, commits or encourages a sin. 
It is not my part — there are others here much more adequate to the task — to point out 
how entirely and absolutely slavery is opposed to the whole principles and spirit of the 
Gospel. The mere use of such terms as " The bondage of sin," and " The glorious 
liberty of the sons of God," is alone sufficient to establish this; for slavery must indeed 
mean something unutterably fearful and degrading, when it is used to denote the thral- 
dom in which Satan holds the souls of men ; and liberty must imply something inex- 
pressibly delightful and ennobling when employed to denote the privileges of the blessed. 
I might tell you of the effect of Christian principles on the heart of every man, leading 
the slave to burn and pant for freedom, and constraining all to use their every effort to 
break the fetters of the captive, and to let the oppressed go free. I might remind you 
of the golden rule — " Do unto others as you would be done by," — a rule which ex- 
cludes any man from holding a slave, or from aiding or acquiescing in maintaining the 
system who is not prepared to be himself a slave. I might point out the glorious des- 
tinies, the immortal prospects, which the Gospel opens alike to " bond and free;" but 
I leave these interesting subjects to reverend gentlemen near me better qualified to en- 
large on them ; and I put my hand on a principle of which the Americans profess to 
be peculiarly proud — .the equality of man. Yes, we are all equal — we all come into the 
world in the same naked helplessness — we all drop into the grave in the same naked in- 
anity. At the commencement and at the close of life, God has impressed equality on 
all human beings ; and what is man, that, in the brief interval between these two events, 
he should set his foot on his fellow man ? Allow me, in conclusion, to remark, that, 
in entering our protest against Slavery in America, as sinful, inhuman, and ruinous, 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



21 



we must be careful to do so in the tone of kind and friendly remonstrance, worthy of 
the cause we advocate and the religion we profess, remembering how recently it is 
since we had any title to protest or remonstrate at all, and never forgetting that "he is 
the freeman whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves beside." If in this great 
cause we wish to prosper, our efforts must be essentially and exclusively Christian 
efforts, maintained by Christian principles, by the use of Christian means, tempered by 
Christian charity, — above all, accompanied by a prayer for the blessing of God, without 
which all human exertions must be vain. Let us in this spirit, and by these means, 
proceed, and we may confidently look for success ; and some of us may be spared to see 
the day, when, successively expelled from every quarter of the earth, Slavery, with 
her attendant horrors, shall wing her way to regions of everlasting night, and universal 
Liberty commence her peaceful reign. (Great cheering.) 

The Rev. Archibald Bennie, of Lady Yester's Church,, seconded the 
Resolution in the following speech : — 

My Lord Provost, — I appear with great pleasure at this meeting of my fellow-citi- 
zens to testify against the great sin and evil of slavery, though I cannot entirely sup- 
press a feeling of shame in seconding, in the nineteenth century, the resolution which 
has now been proposed. One cannot but be ashamed to think, that it should be ne- 
cessary, after so much has been done to cultivate mind and to diffuse knowledge, to 
repeat, justify, and defend so plain a proposition, as that man is free, and that his fel- 
low-man has, and can have, no right of property in him. (Cheers.) There are some 
subjects so complex and subtie in their nature, and so varied and minute in their rela- 
tions, that men of the calmest judgment and the most candid temper have differed re- 
specting them. But most certainly slavery is not one of them. No intricate process 
of reasoning, no elaborate induction of particulars, is required to expose its criminality 
and wretchedness. It is a subject on which every man is qualified to judge. An ap- 
peal to the heart is sufficient to determine it. Is not rank merely the guinea stamp ? 
and is not the moral and accountable nature of man the gold on which it is impressed ? 
( Great cheering.) 

The principle of slavery is subversive of all religion and morality. But long after 
this was admitted, there was a disposition to justify slavery in modified forms, and in 
particular countries. " Look," it was said, " at the comfort of these Negroes — the 
abundance of their provisions — the quiet shelter of their homes, and the number of 
their holidays. Are the labourers and mechanics of Europe as well fed, and as com- 
fortable as these ?" Admitting the picture to be correct, our answer was, " There is 
the violation of a great principle in slavery. There is a disruption of the most sacred 
ties ; while, beneath the flowers of the description, the whip is hid, and under the co- 
vering of comfort, the chain clinks." But, we added, " The picture is not correct. 
The comfort is extorted by fear, or yielded by selfishness, and is therefore precarious 
and uncertain. There is in slavery — what has ever been the great bane of society — 
irresponsible power, against whose abuses no law can guard, and to whose unbridled ex- 
cesses no limit can be fixed." We were also told that man in some countries behoved 
to be a slave. There was a necessity for it, arising out of his condition both intellec- 
tual and physical. He was ignorant — we said, Give him knowledge. He was desti- 
tute of forethought — we said, Cultivate his powers of reflection and reasoning. He 
was sensual — we said, Purify and refine his affections and desires. Above all, we said, 
*' There is a law written on the brow of the Negro, as on that of the European, ' Man 
must be free.' This law extends to the hottest plain of the tropics, as to the coldest 
field of the polar regions ; and if, in any way, or to any extent, you attempt to contra- 
vene or to infringe on that law, you fight against the lawgiver, who is God." (Much 
applause.) 

This resolution states that slavery is opposed to the dictates of humanity. The his- 
tory of all slave countries teems with the proofs of this. There is scarcely a species cf 
cruelty to which slavery has not led. The blood recoils at the thought of its horrors. 
And even in its mildest forms it is a great and outrageous evil. It is a denial that the 
slave is man, and therefore a robbery of the first and highest right of his nature. It 
is opposed to the prosperity of nations. It debases and brutalises the character of the 
people among whom it prevails. It raises up barriers to the progress of knowledge, the 
diffusion of education, and consequently to the improvement of society. We read of 
gold and silver which are cankered — whose rust shall be a witness against their pos- 
sessors, and shall eat their flesh as with fire. The wealth procured by the tiaffic in 



22 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



slaves comes under this head. It is earned by a fraud upon human nature. It is 
tainted with injustice and violence. (Cheers.) 

I turn from these topics to one which it may be more appropriate in me to illustrate 
—slavery is opposed to the principles of the Christian religion. This is almost so self- 
evident a proposition, that to put it in words is to prove it. (Cheers.) Many, who 
have defended slavery, who have earned their money by it, and have trafficked in slaves, 
have professed to believe in Christianity ; but where, in what portion of that religion, 
is there the slightest sanction to slavery ? Look to its general tenor. It is a message 
of love and peace to man. Look to its doctrines. They are addressed to mankind — 
to rich and poor. They make no distinction between kings and subjects, nobles and 
peasants. It is man they contemplate — not man with a dark skin or a white — not the 
native of Europe, or the native of Asia — but man who has sinned, who has a soul to 
be saved, and a Judge to meet — man whom God made, and Christ died to redeem. It 
looks at human nature in its naked elements. It speaks chiefly of the soul, and the 
soul is the man. It excludes from its blessings neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, 
Scythian, bond nor free. It declares that " God hath made of one blood all nations 
of men/' (Cheers.) 

If slavery is opposed to the doctrines and design of Christianity, it is scarcely neces- 
sary to state, that it is equally so to its precepts. What is the summary of the Divine 
law respecting our duties to mankind ? Love thy neighbour as thyself ; and the 
Saviour of the world has told us, that all men are our neighbours ; — that, wherever 
there is the claim of suffering which we can relieve, there is neighbourhood. The good 
Samaritan did not pause to consider whether the robbed and wounded traveller was his 
countryman — his fellow-citizen ; whether he was a native of swarthy Ethiopia, or a rude 
pilgrim from the desert. Enough that he saw him bleeding, and nearly dead. He 
was a man — bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. His heart felt the appeal of 
misery, and his kind offices answered. Is it neighbourly, then, to buy and sell your 
fellow-creature, to treat him worse than the very beast of burden which the Jewish 
law protected? " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn" — (Hear, 
hear) — or say to him, " Go, and he must go ; come, and he must come ;" — to tell 
him, that he is worth so much gold, as your fields, your furniture, and your crops are, 
Christianity has placed our duties to others in a strong and impressive light in a single 
sentence of beautiful morality, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you 
do ye even so to them." Where is the slaveholder who would wish to be the slave 
whom he buys and sells ? who would wish to be ordered out into the fields, compelled 
to labour, deprived of social privileges, and treated at best as a piece of useful mechanism, 
with a capacity of suffering to be turned to account ? But, indeed, I feel as if I was 
offering an injury to Christianity, by bringing it into the contaminating presence of 
such an idea as slavery. It is a poor thing to say of that religion of peace and love, 
that it is opposed to slavery, while there are so many nobler things that may be justly 
said of it. Its great object is to exalt, to purify, and to adorn our nature ; and, 
wherever it has been diffused, it has covered society with blessings. It has unbarred 
the dungeons of persecution. It has softened and humanised the characters of rude 
and lawless men. It has said to men everywhere, both spiritually and temporally, 
" Prisoners go forth ; ye that are in darkness shew yourselves." It condemns injus- 
tice, cruelty, and violence, in all their forms and degrees. It seeks to lead man to the 
love of God, and, through God, to the love of his creatures ; and it may be safely 
affirmed, that the more widely it is diffused, and the more deeply its influence is felt, 
the more truly will man be the benefactor of man — the more closely will the human 
family be linked together, as the children of one parent, and as called to the hope of 
one inheritance. It will loose the bands of wickedness. — it will undo the heavy bur- 
dens, — it will make the oppressed to go free, and break every yoke ! (Great cheering.) 

This Resolution acknowledges our obligations to Providence for having freed this great 
country from the stigma of maintaining slavery. My Lord Provost, it was a bright day 
for Britain when our legislators resolved on this act of justice to our common nature. 
Long, long, it was our shame to connive at, and sanction the infamous traffic. But 
enlightened Christian opinion at length prevailed ; and this dark stain of our reproach 
has been wiped away. Britain is now what she was not before — the consistent patroness 
of freedom ; and wherever her ships plough their way, the stranger can point to them 

and say, " There goes the flag of a free people." There was many a vain attempt 

many an arduous struggle — many a keen and resolute debate ; but at length the day of 
triumph came ; Providence smiled on the cause ; and the chain of slavery, throughout 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



the magnificent territory of Britain, was finally, and for ever, broken. (Loud ap- 
plause.) 

But, while we are thankful that our country has abolished slavery, we must extend 
our sympathies to those who are held in that bondage by other nations. This is no 
national or paity question — it is a question of humanity ; wherever there is a slave, we 
must pity him ; wherever there is a people who sanction slavery, we must condemn 
them. We must not cease till slavery is abolished all over the world — till there is not 
a single link of a chain clinking at the heels of the meanest of our race. Particularly, 
when we see slavery sanctioned in America, we must raise our voices. It is a burning 
shame to that country that the slave trade should exist in it. It makes liberty dis- 
trusted, and the boast of it disgusting. Let us not forget — 

" 'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower 
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume, 
And we are weeds without it." 

The reverend gentlemen sat down amidst great applause, and the Re- 
solution having been submitted to the meeting by the Lord Provost, was 
carried unanimously. 

The Rev. W. Lindsay Alexander, M. A., spoke as follows., in moving 
the second Resolution, viz. — 

" That this Meeting view with sincere regret the existence of unmitigated Slavery in 
America, a country connected with Great Britain by many interesting ties ; and con- 
ceive it to be their duty publicly to express their sentiments on the subject, and to record 
their detestation of this inhuman and unchristian system." 

The motion, my Lord, which I hold in my hand, and which I have the honour to pro- 
pose for the adoption of this Meeting, has a reference to the existence of slavery in Ame- 
rica, in its most unrelenting and unmitigated forms ; and to the duty devolving upon us, 
under these circumstances, of publicly expressing our sentiments on this subject, and re- 
cording our detestation and abhorrence of such a state of things. On the general subject 
of slavery I shall not offer any remarks ; at this time of day, and especially after the 
addresses to which the meeting has already listened, any such remarks would be little bet- 
ter than impertinent. Neither shall I attempt to offer any details respecting the actual 
state of slavery in America, as that subject has been already so fully and impressively 
brought before the public mind in Edinburgh, by the eloquent addresses which our friend 
Mr Thompson has on several occasions delivered since he last came among us. I shall 
rather keep myself to the main topic of the motion which I hold in my hand, viz. the 
loud call which the existence of unmitigated slavery in America makes upon us, the 
inhabitants of Britain, to come forward and do what in us lies to enlighten our trans- 
atlantic brethren, in regard to the injustice, cruelty, and impiety of such a state of 
things, and thus to endeavour to expedite its destruction. By many, I believe, both in 
this country and in America, our conduct in what we have already done in this matter, 
has been regarded as hardly justifiable, on the principle that the inhabitants of one nation 
have no right to interfere with the internal regulations of another. Now, if by this it be 
merely meant to affirm that a nation, as such, or a government, as a representative 
of a nation, has no right to interfere with the internal policy of another nation, living 
under another and an independent government, the affirmation is one which lies at the 
very foundation of international law, and it would be at once foolish and wicked to 
deny it. But a principle which forbids men to act in a national capacity, by no means 
necessarily forbids them to act as individuals. To say that it is inexpedient and wrong 
for one government to interfere with the internal operations and economy of another, 
is not of necessity to say that it is an error in policy, or a violation of morality, for 
one man, or a body of men, acting in their private capacity, to expostulate with those 
of another country, upon the criminality and impiety which some of their institutions 
may involve. That our Government has no right to take up the question of slavery 
in America, I at once concede ; but that we, as individuals, have no such right, I must 
tako leave to deny ; at least, I do not see how this is essentially involved in the con- 
cession I have made. I must contend that there are cases which, though placed be- 
yond the legitimate influence of national authority or physical power, lie within the 
sphere of moral power, and in such cases every man who possesses that power, has, 
by the very possession of it, a right to wield it. — (Cheers.) Of such cases the one be- 
fore us is an instance. The question of slavery in America, is not with us a political 



24 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



question, — the existence or the non-existence uf that cruel system, leaves our national 
relations with that country alike untouched ; the flag of Britain floats not the less 
proudly and freely, that that of America is marked with the traces of injustice, and 
stained with the blood of the oppressed. But we approach the question as one of 
morals and of religion ; we appeal, in the discussion of it, to great and immutable prin- 
ciples — principles which apply as well in America as in Britain ; we point to the law 
written on the heart, and the law recorded in the Bible ; we address ourselves to Ame- 
rica not as Britons so much as men and as Christians ; and in such a case it is absurd, 
it is childish, to speak of national relations and political rights, as if they could inter- 
pose a legitimate barrier against the enforcement of our plea (Loud cheers.) 

The way being, then, open for our interfering in this matter, we are called upon, I 
think, by every consideration of humanity and religion, to lift up our voice, and cry 
aloud and spare not, until the eyes of our brethren in America are opened to see the 
evils and enormities of that system, which still retains among them its unmitigated ex- 
istence. Had we nothing else to proceed upon than the principles of ordinary huma- 
nity, there would be furnished to us by these, inducements enow to engage in this 
work. The sympathies of the human heart are not to be shut up within conventional 
limits, or restrained by the enactments of civil policy. Awaken these sympathies by 
scenes of sorrow or of agony, and the chainless spirit passes with the rapidity of thought 
over seas and continents — breaks through the artificial barriers of national distinctions 
— laughs to scorn the enactments of charters and constitutions, and rests not until it 
has reached the objects of its regards, and mingled with the wail of their suffering the 

sympathy of its own lacerated feelings (Great applause.) And is there not suffering 

in America — deep, uncheered, unmitigated, hopeless suffering? Is there not in Ame- 
rica an exhibition, in all its most perfect development, of that hideous system which, 
reversing all moral distinctions, and violating all principles of law, makes a man suffer 
without a crime, establishes political and personal rights according to mere physiolo- 
gical peculiarities, and interrupts that salutary connection which the Creator has insti- 
tuted between virtue and happiness, industry and comfort, piety and respectability ? Is 
it not a fact, that there is not only slavery in America, but slavery in its worst and most 
revolting forms ? And is it not true, that the system of torture and oppression, with all 
its sickening train of immoralities and impurities, which was exhibited in the bud and 
embryo in the West Indies, has effloresced into all the luxuriance of full-grown matu- 
rity in the slave States of that country ? Are these things so ? And shall we be told 
to sit still, and hold our peace, and steel our feelings, and do violence to the dictates 
of our own bosoms, but perchance we should, by boldly speaking out, offend the pre. 
judices, and hurt the selfish pride of that most unsound democracy. I treat with con- 
tempt all such paltry bugbears. I throw myself back upon the indestructible sympa- 
thies of our common humanity. I say to the slave-driver of America, I claim the re- 
lationship of common nature with that being you call your slave ; I look on that man 
you are torturing as a brother, on that wom»n you are degrading as a sister ; and in 
the name of the God that made us, and made us all of one blood, I command you to 
withhold your hand, and let the oppressed go free- — (Great cheers.) 

But, my Lord, America professes to be a Christian country, and far be it from me 
to deny that in that country there are multitudes that fear the Lord, and are zeal- 
ous for his cause. I am not one of those that are for including all our trans- 
atlantic brethren in one common charge of irreligion and heathenism, because they 
have among them slavery, and have allowed unholy principles and practices to 
obtain progress among them as the consequence of this system. I remember 
that America is the country of Brainerd, and Edwards, and Dwight, and Judson, 
and Newell, and many other imperishable names. I bear in mind that it is a land 
which contains at present some of the very excellent of the earth, men whose wri- 
tings we have rejoiced to study, and some of whose voices we have been refreshed 
in hearing. I would not forget all that God has done for Christianity in that land, 
and all that Christians in the exercise of holy gratitude have done for the cause of 
God ; and therefore I will never consent to unchristianize the churches of America, or 
to treat their members as heathens and reprobates. On the contrary, I would, in this 
matter, feel as if my strongest ground were cutaway from me, were I not permitted to 
go upon the presumption that there are in that country multitudes on whom I could 
press the arguments which the religion of Christ furnishes against slavery and injustice. 
Assured that there is nothing in the New Testament to countenance, far less to authorise, 
either the practices or the prejudices of Americans in reference to their coloured popu- 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



25 



lation, and satisfied that it is only by their eyes being closed against the truth, and their 
minds warped and spell-bound by an early evil prepossession, that our Christian bre- 
thren on the other side of the Atlantic can reconcile their conduct towards that portion 
of the community with their acknowledged principles, or enjoy any peace of conscience 
while acting so directly in opposition to the entire spirit and tendency of that holy re- 
ligion, of which they are the disciples ; I would take my stand upon Bible principles, 
and I would make my appeal to them as friends of the Bible on behalf of these princi- 
ples, and of that course of conduct to which they would naturally lead. To act thus 
I feel myself bound by the express command of God. I find his people charged in his 
word not to suffer sin upon their brethren ; I find their doing so identified with hatred 
of their brethren ; and I find hatred of their brethren denounced as murderous. Un- 
less, then, I would subject myself to this fearful charge, I must remonstrate with my 
brethren when their sins are brought before me, and, by reproof as well as argu- 
ment and entreaty, endeavour to recal them to a sense of duty, and to the path 
of uprightness and virtue. Urged by this consideration, therefore, I would go to the 
churches of America to plead with them on behalf of the enslaved and the in- 
jured. As brethren in Christ I would entreat them to listen to me for the love I bear 
to them. As one whom they have offended, I would seek to be reconciled to them by 
persuading them to relinquish the offence and forsake the sin. And as one who 
was no niggardly admirer of their zeal, their piety, and their energy, I would implore 
them to free themselves from this accursed system, that their zeal might be the purer, 
their piety the more sincere, and their energy augmented a thousand-fold. (Cheers.) 

There is yet one consideration more, my Lord, which appears to me to furnish a 
reason why we should interfere in this matter. It is this, that in respect of American 
slavery this country is itself verily guilty. (Hear, hear.) It was Britain that introduced 
this state of things into America, and though our descendants there were but too ready 
not only to leatn the lesson but to improve upon it, it still remains with us as a weighty 
charge, that from our hands as a nation came the first impulse which set in operation 
that vast machinery whose products of diabolical iniquity have been so plentifully yield- 
ed ever since. If, then, we can do aught to remove this weight from our shoulders, let 
us do it. If in the days of our own ignorance we taught so erroneous a lesson to others, 
let us feel the obligation resting upon us, now that God has opened our eyes to see 
the evil and danger of what we once practised, to use every means to unteach what we 
formerly inculcated, and arrest the operations of that ruinous system which we were the 
first to set agoing. 

In aid of all these reasons (so sufficient of themselves to induce us to bestir ourselves 
in regard to the existence of slavery in America) there arises now the additional con- 
sideration that we have already committed ourselves to the work, and cannot without 
disgrace draw back. We have sent out an esteemed and honoured friend to represent 
our views, and seek to impress upon the friends of truth and religion in that land the 
opinions which have obtained a victory in our own. He has well and powerfully re- 
presented us, and roused in that country a feeling and an agitation which cannot sub- 
side so long as slavery exists. And now that he has returned, compelled by popular 
clamour and lawless outrage to retire from his labour of beneficence, it is for us to fol- 
low up his exertions by our remonstrances and our rebukes. We ought to feel also the 
claim addressed to us by the band of heroic philanthropists whom he has been the 
means of calling into action, and whom he has left behind him to carry on the work of 
mercy amid many discouragements and dangers. Let us assist these noble-minded 
persons with our advice, our approbation, our encouragement. Let us remember the 
peculiar and manifold difficulties of their position — shu t out as they are from the sym- 
pathies of their countrymen, — branded as enemies to their commonwealth, and to its 
constitution, — driven from the fellowship of their own rank, and even looked upon with 
an evil eye by their professed brethren in Christ. To act firmly, prudently, and per- 
severingly, under such circumstances is no easy task ; let us then stand forward in 
their behalf, and if by our co-operation and sympathy we can in any degree alleviate 
their trials, and strengthen their energies, let us cheerfully render them a service which 
their exertions so richly demand. (Cheers.) 

In conclusion, my Lord, the motion I hold in my hand calls upon us "to record our 
detestation of the inhuman and unchristian system" of Negro slavery. This we have 
already done, and we are as ready to do it as ever. We have recorded our abhorrence 
of slavery in the history of forty years' exertion for its destruction. We have recorded 

B 



26 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



it in thousands of petitions to Parliament, bearing the signatures of myriads of free- 
born hands, and breathing the aspirations of myriads of freeborn souls. We have re- 
corded it in the annals of our nation, and paid Twenty Millions of Pounds Sterling as the 
price of the registration. And now we are ready to record it in the history of the world. 
We are ready to assume our proper place as the only nation that is truly free, and in all 
tbe dignity of our moral pre-eminence to address ourselves to the race at large. We 
would stand forward as the patrons of humanity, the advocates of liberty, the enemies of 
oppression, 'the liberators of the world. We would speak in the accents, not of anger, but 
of remonstrance, and enforce our appeals, not by the thunder of our cannon, but by the 
persuasiveness of our moral influence. Touched by many a master-finger, the harp of 
liberty has flung its hallowed music over glen, and city, and hamlet, and plain, of our 
romantic land, and with our souls attuned to that divinest melody_we would speak to 
the nations. And whether they will listen to us now or not, let this be our unalterable 
resolve, that we will never relinquish our exertions in the cause of emancipation ; but 
while we have a tongue to speak, or a pen to write, or a heart to pray, we will labour 
on till our end sball be obtained — till the relation of master and slave shall be every- 
where abolished — till the words slavery and oppression shall become obsolete in every 
language — till the lash shall cease to be dyed in human blood — till the chain shall no 
longer clank on the innocent victim, and the hammer that was used to rivet it shall lie 
idle on the forge — and till from every country on our renovated globe, the hymn of 
freedom shall arise to heaven, and the groans of the oppressed be heard no more. (Pro- 
longed applause.) 

James Moncreiff, Esq. Advocate, in seconding the motion, spoke 
nearly as follows : — 

My Lord Provost, I cannot help again congratulating the meeting that we are 
in a position which entitles us to deliberate on this question. It was not among the 
least of the many miserable consequences of our West Indian slavery, that it paralyzed 
our efforts of philanthropy, and threw a shade of just suspicion over the sincerity of our 
religious professions ; for how could we be thought truly anxious for the civil liberty 
or religious welfare of other nations, while supporting a system of unchristian slavery 
at home ? On the other hand, we have now a special and peculiar right to lift up our 
voice against this iniquity, wherever it is found in the habitable globe ; for we do not 
speak of miseries we have never known, — we do not preach tenets which we have not 
been willing to practise, — nor do we recommend a course of action, the dangers and 
consequences of which we have not ourselves been ready to encounter. (Cheers.) 

I need not detain you by delineating the horrors of slavery. The story of slaverv 
in all times has been the same. To say that the slave in the Southern States of Ame- 
rica is considered as ordinary merchandise, possessing neither the affections nor sym- 
pathies of a man, nor the destinies of an immortal spirit — that the arm of the law is 
felt by him only to remind him that he is not within its pale — and the comforts of 
domestic life never enjoyed but with the consciousness that the caprice of another may 
to-morrow deprive him of them all — these only fill up the too-often repeated tale of 
personal bondage, in Heathen or Christian lands. But American slavery has some- 
thing peculiarly revolting. Our West Indian slavery was not paraded before our eyes 
it did not meet us in daily life — it was thought of as a story of horror, which dis- 
tance magnified — or, at least, was not present to our minds constantly, and without 
some peculiar crisis. But slavery in America is the basis of society. At home and 
in the fields — in every relation of public or private life, slavery is the mainspring of 
all business or pleasure. The child is brought up in the tenets of Christianity and of 
slavery at once ; and the planter of Virginia or [Maryland, after spending his summer 
in superintending his droves of slaves, or driving, perhaps, a profitable merchandise 
in his fellow-men, comes up to Congress to declaim on liberty and equality, on Chris- 
tian truth, or national independence. 

Another fearful picture of American slavery, is the continuance of the infamous slave 
trade. This is still carried on to an extent revolting to every feeling or Christian 
mind. No man of colour is safe who cannot prove his freedom, and the jails of the 
country are filled with these miserable wretches, confined there for no crime, and fre- 
quently sold into slavery in the end to pay the fees incurred by their confinement. 

It may be said that such meetings as the present can have no effect on the evil. 
Even were this true, I would not care, and if all we could do were to release our 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



27 



own consciences and testify to the truth, I would hold that it is at all times the duty of 
a Christian people to protest against the guilty phantasy, that man can hold property in 
man. But I do not helieve that our efforts will be ineffectual. We might speak in 
vain to the tyrants of Constantinople or St Petersburg, for they have no common 
principles with ourselves, but America shares with us a common freedom and a common 
Christianity, and the principles of eternal right, though they may roll ineffectually over 
the Mediterranean or the Baltic, may be heard and responded to on the other side of 
the Atlantic. (Cheers.) We do not plead the cause of the slave against the freeman 
of America — we plead the cause of America itself. (Loud cheering.) The doom 
awaits her which has followed every state which ever acted on the pernicious fallacy 
that the freedom of the few could compensate for the slavery of the many. Whatever, 
therefore, America has of patriotism — whatever of enterprise and energy — whatever of 
free institutions — whatever exertions, and they have been many, in the cause of Chris- 
tian truth — all are bound up and perilled with this load of slavery, and she must either 
cast it from her, or perish along with it. 

The learned gentleman concluded amidst loud cheers, by cordially se- 
conding the motion ; which having been put from the chair, the resolu- 
tion was unanimously adopted by the meeting. 

Bailie Macfarlan moved the adoption of the Third Resolution, viz. — 
" That the accounts lately received from America regarding the progress of this 
great question, and the formation and extension of Anti- Slavery Societies in that coun- 
try, are most satisfactory, and afford strong ground for hope that the peaceful efforts 
of Christian philanthropists may, by the blessing of God, be successful in effecting the 
abolition of slavery, and rescuing the vast coloured population from degradation, igno- 
rance, and vice." 

My Lord Provost, — The resolution which has been put into my hands is of a 
nature somewhat different from those which have already been submitted to, and so 
unanimously and cordially adopted by this meeting, so much so that I cannot expect 
it to be adopted without the aid of powerfid arguments and overwhelming facts. When 
such a meeting as the present is called upon to express in general terms its detestation 
of slavery, and more especially of that most degrading and revolting form in which it 
exists in the United States of America, and when it adopts such resolutions, it does 
just that which is natural to it, which it cannot avoid, and which affords it the highest 
gratification. (Cheers.) To one who has enjoyed the blessings of freedom, slavery, 
in whatever form it is met with, must ever present a most odious aspect — he cannot 
but loathe and abhor it; and, in the language of a resolution already adopted, must 
" feel called on to use every lawful means for promoting its entire abolition in every 
quarter of the world." In doing so, he is breathing the air of that freedom in which he 
lives, and giving expression to those sentiments which animate his breast ; but it is a very 
different thing to be called upon to say that he considers the cause of freedom making 
progress, and that the prospect afforded by the existing state of things is such as to lead 
him to cherish a confident expectation that it must soon and completely prevail — yet 
such is the nature of the resolution now proposed for the adoption of the meeting. The 
first view which presents itself, on looking to the state in which slavery at present ex- 
ists in the United States, is sufficiently discouraging, and we are almost tempted to de- 
spair of ever being able to overcome it. The efforts which have been made appear 
only to have had the effect of calling forth the most determined and deadly opposition, 
— an opposition so powerful as naturally to lead to the conclusion that it must 
inevitably crush every endeavour to introduce even the semblance of freedom ; yet, 
when this state of matters is more narrowly examined, it will be found to afford 
grounds for entertaining well-founded hopes of speedy and effectual deliverance. The 
existence of that agitation which now prevails may safely be advanced, then, as 
an argument in support of the motion now submitted to this meeting. (Hear, hear.) 
In the darkness of the night no agitation is perceptible, but when light begins to arise 
upon the darkness, the grey dawn of the morning is seen contending with the black- 
ness of the night, and for a time with doubtful success ; but darkness disappears, and 
the light continues to increase until it shines forth in the perfect dav. And so it is 
with truth, when first made to bear upon the darkness of ignorance, of prejudice, 
or of error, it may appear to have but little effect ; but it proceeds, and nothing can 
arrest its progress, until it dissipates the darkness of the surrounding night. When, 



23 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



therefore, the agitation has commenced, — still more when it has proceeded to a great 
extent, — when, as in the present case, it has extended over the whole extent of coun- 
try where slavery prevails, the issue is no longer douhtful. As soon may darkness 
prevent the advance of day, as the opposition now raised prevent the progress of just 
and enlightened views on the subject of slavery ; and when these are widely diffused 
and made extensively to bear on the hearts even of those who now maintain the most 
cruel and degrading oppression over their fellow men, it cannot be but that the influ- 
ence thus exerted, especially the influence of Christian truth, must be attended with 
the happiest results. The chains of the captive must be loosed, and the oppressed 
made to go free. The expression of the sentiments of such a numerous and respect- 
able meeting as this must tell powerfully in America. They who profess to be free 
cannot be insensible to the declared opinions of freemen. (Cheers.) They cannot 
but desire to stand well in the eyes of those who, enjoying the blessings of freedom 
themselves, extend them to all around, and must be anxious to shew that they know 
something more of liberty than the name, and must be stimulated to rescue themselves 
from the degrading condition in which they are now placed, as the patrons of the most 
oppressive and destructive slavery which ever existed. But if the mere agitation of the 
question thus encourages our hopes, the resistance which is made is more encouraging 
still. The mighty opposition which has been stirred up from one end of America to 
the other, while it manifests the power which the principle of slavery exerts over the 
land, manifests also the power of the principles of freedom which are now in operation. 
(Loud applause.) Were these principles faint, feeble, and inoperative, would thev 
have called forth so extensive and well- organized a host against them ? would nearly 
the whole population have been roused as one man to resist and put them down ? Cer- 
tainly not. It is not usual for great armies to be arrayed — for mighty efforts to be 
employed — for the most unprincipled and malignant persecutions to be exert- 
ed, against what in itself is feeble and contemptible ? yet, we find that all 
ranks in America appear to have united, in one determined effort, to resist, and, 

if possible, to put down liberty itself. The most awful excesses are committed, 

the laws are outraged, or altogether trampled on — even the ministers of religion ap- 
pear to forget the principles of that gospel which they preach, and lend their aid to 
keep down the slave. These mighty efforts prove to a demonstration, that the labours 
of those who aim at the destruction of slavery are felt to be powerful and overwhelming. 
If so, can any reasonable doubt be entertained but that they must prevail ? (Loud 
cheers.) Arguments, however, alone cannot be expected to satisfy this meeting that 
the cause of freedom is advancing : it will be required that facts be adduced, sufficiently 
numerous and striking, to carry conviction to every mind. In other circumstances 
it would have been necessary now to have stated such facts, but when I can refer 
to the gentleman who is to second this motion for such a statement, I feel that I may 
well be excused from trespassing longer on the time and patience of the meeting ; sa- 
tisfied as I am that Mr Thompson, who has periled his life in the cause of freedom 

who has travelled so far, and seen so much of the fearful conflict; — and to whose exer- 
tions humanity owes so deep a debt of gratitude — will make such a statement as to lead 
you as cordially and as fully to adopt the resolution now proposed, as any of those which 
have preceded it ; nor can I avoid expressing what must be experienced by all now pre- 
sent, — a feeling of exultation in the anticipation of a complete and universal emancipation. 
(Loud cheers.) 

Mr Thompson,, on rising to second the motion,, was received with loud 
and repeated cheering. 

He observed, that the present was to him a moment of high exultation. He had 
frequently addressed large and enthusiastic auditories in Edinburgh on the subject of 
slavery — those auditories had, however, been convened by societies established for the 
removal of slavery — he now stood before a meeting of the citizens of Edinburgh, con- 
vened as such, to express their sense of the sinfulness and degrading tendency of sla- 
very in the United States. As the humble but zealous advocate of the rights of the 
American slave, he could not repress a feeling of pride at finding himself surrounded 
by the wealth, intelligence, rank, learning, and piety of the metropolis of Scotland, all 
arrayed on the side of the oppressed. (Loud cheers.) The Parliament- House, the 
pulpit, the city council, the magisterial bench, the counting-house and the drawing- 
room, had together sent forth a splendid galaxy of beautv, and talent, and worth, to 



TTBL1C MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS- 



20 



plead the cause of the Transatlantic slave. (Great applause.) It was delightful to see 
the highest civic functionary presiding over them, not as a matter of form, but with a 
sincere and heartfelt devotion to the cause — his heart and his head alike embued with 
sentiments of the warmest sympathy with the suffering and enslaved. (Cheers.) Still, 
with all his impressions of the dignity and importance of the meeting before him, he 
(Mr T.) could not say that he considered the cause they advocated honoured by the 
presence of anv around him, however high their rank or wide their influence. He felt 
inclined rather to say that the cause itself was so high, and holy, and illustrious, that 
it shed honour and radiancy on all who were devoted to it — was "mightiest in the 
mighty," and gave an added grace to the fairest and the wisest of its supporters. 
(Great applause.) Negro slavery was the blot and curse of Christendom. Still were 
there nearly six millions of human beings in thraldom to Christian states — still was the 
slave-trade carried on to an extent as great as when the eloquence of the sainted Wil- 
berforce charmed the senate of the land. He (Mr T.) thanked God that the slavery 
of the West Indies had been declared illegal, and that the islands of the West, swayed 
by the British sceptre, if not at present free in reality, had the prospect of a speedy and 
certain deliverance from the horrors of bondage. Already the benefits of emancipation were 
distinctlv visible. Schools were rising ; churches and chapels were multiplying ; ves- 
sels were leaving our ports freighted with the word of God, the preacher of righteous- 
ness, and books of elementary instruction. Soon would the darkness disappear, and 
the hills and valleys of Jamaica, instead of echoing the sighing of the prisoner, and the 
clank of chains, reverberate with the song of praise, and the melodious anthem of a. 
regenerated people. (Immense cheering.) 

Every friend of humanity and freedom now looked to America — the land of light, 
and law, and liberty, and religion ; and yet, with equal emphasis, worthy of being 
called a land of heathen darkness, and foul oppression, and mob- supremacy, and prac- 
tical atheism — (Hear, hear.) There liberty was entrapped in her sanctuary and home 
— there the precepts of religion were derided, despised, and contemned, and the foun- 
tain of mercy itself converted into the waters of bitterness — there merchants traded 
in slaves and the souls of men — there, even the ministers who stood at the altars of an 
equal God, did not hesitate to deny the book of life to the home-born population 
around them. Shame, shame on America ! Let the gathered, concentrated, scorch- 
ing scorn of every civilized nation be fixed upon the land so boastful of its liberty and 
religion ; yet, so recreant to all the principles of truth and justice both human and di- 
vine. He spoke not under the influence of wrath, but deep regret. He prayed that 
such a meeting as he then addressed might soon be summoned to celebrate the second 
and nobler independence of the United States, — an independence of the foul systems of 
slavery and prejudice which now polluted the soil of Columbia, and impeded the progress 
of the cause of universal freedom. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) The resolution which he 
had the honour to second, referred to the hopeful symptoms of a peaceful triumph of 
Christian principles over slavery in America. The indications were indeed most cheer- 
ing. The progress of the cause during the last two years was without a parallel in the 
annals of philanthropy. Light had been diffused throughout the L T nion. Societies 
had been formed in the majority of the States, and numbered together upwards of 
320. Converts had been multiplied until they were innumerable. Instances of forti- 
tude and martyr-like heroism, worthy of the ages of primitive Christianity, were con- 
stantly occurring, and the triumphs every day achieved over interest and prejudice, 
gave abundant evidence, that, when the truth was faithfully proclaimed, there would be 
a general adoption of sound principles in despite of the effects of education and habit. 
The people everywhere were awaking as from a guilty dream. Thousands and tens 
of thousands were already arrayed in sackcloth and ashes. The church, too long the 
friend and supporter of slavery, was rising in purity, and splendour, and omnipotence, 
and coming forth to the battle in the name of the Lord of Hosts. (Great applause.) 
America presented a sublime spectacle, The trumpet had been sounded, and the con- 
flict had commenced. It was a death struggle. Truth and error — light and darkness 
— the angel of mercy and the demon of oppression had grappled. God and good men 
were looking on, nor could a doubt be cherished respecting the issue of the combat. 
(Loud cheers.) 

Mr Thompson then went into a lengthened account of the rapid advance of the cause 
during the progress of his mission in America. When he first went over to America 
there was no opposition — the abolitionists were despised as contemptible visionaries, 
and esteemed harmless. But the progress of the question soon roused the anti-aboli- 



30 



PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS. 



tionists from their lethargy ; and the friends of the slave were everywhere denounced 
as disturbers of the peace of the country. Notwithstanding all this opposition, the 
cause went on — there were now 320 Abolition Societies through the Union ; there 
were nearly 100 abolition newspapers; and for funds, at a meeting not nearly so large 
as the present, 14,500 dollars were raised. They had not indeed such patronage as 
in Scotland; for, instead of having the Chief Magistrate presiding, as here, when a 
meeting of ladies took place in Boston, and four or rive thousand well-dressed ruffians 
assembled to prevent them, the Mayor went to the room and said, " Ladies, ladies, I 
entreat you to disperse/' One of the ladies shrewdly asked, " Why don't you entreat 
the mob to disperse ?" (Laughter.) " Oh," said he, " I can do nothing with them." 
" Well, then, call out the constables." " Oh! they are in the mob." " Call out 
the militia, then." " Oh ! they are in the mob." " The volunteers then." " Oh ! 
they are in the mob too." (Loud laughter.) " Oh ! Well, then, go and use your 
personal influence." " Oh ! I have no personal influence ; ladies, ladies, you have 
all the reason on your side, but I entreat you to disperse." (Great laughter, and 
cheering.) Even in the Southern States, the feeling was spreading, though they dare 
not avow it, for there it was death for a man to say u hm an abolitionist. " Judge Lynch 
would preside with a short shrift and ready halter ; and a man would be out of the 
world almost as soon as the declaration was out of his lips. But their letters to friends 
in the north told that their sympathies were with them, and upon these grounds he an- 
ticipated that in ten years slavery in America would exist no more. Tappan, Garri- 
son, Thompson, and their followers were denounced as incendiaries, seeking to apply the 
torch to the airest institutions of the land, and stirring up the slaves to take dreadful ven- 
geance upon their oppressors. He (Mr T.) could unequivocally deny the charge. It was 
refuted, indeed, by the conduct of their accusers, who had rifled the mails, seized the 
parcels and boxes of abolitionists, and otherwise possessed themselves of the documents, 
both public and private, of those they branded as insurrectionists ; yet had never pub- 
lished a page, a paragraph, or sentence in support of the allegation. The abolition- 
ists of America were men of Christian principle. They placed the question where it 
had been that day placed by the learned and reverend gentlemen by whom he had been 
preceded, — viz. upon the ground of its sinfulness, and they had sought its settlement 
by the same peaceful and moral means as those that day recommended. We meet (said 
Mr Thompson) as the friends of America. We want not war, neither discord nor 
estrangement. We want to be brethren. We are brethren. We claim the privilege 
of brethren — the privilege of telling those we love their sins, that they may repent 
and be converted. There are already thousands across the water who love us, who 
will be delighted by the tidings of this day's proceedings, and, when they hear of our 
determination to co-operate with them, who will gather fresh courage. Their 
number is fast increasing, and in proportion as they multiply, do the number of 
those who are our affectionate brethren and firm allies increase. I look forward, 
my Lord, with confidence, to the time when we shall rejoice with our Trans- 
atlantic friends in the complete and holy triumph of the great principles which 
are now agitating the minds of the American community. Our motives may, for 
a time, be mistaken and impugned, but ere long they will be understood and ap- 
preciated, and we shall be recognised as those who are not only the friends of the op- 
pressed, but the best friends of the free. Let us, then, persevere in a firm but Christian- 
minded opposition to every institution in every country, at war with the happiness and 
salvation, temporal and spiritual, of mankind. In this work we follow in the steps 
of patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs — we labour in the cause of truth and 
mercy, and freedom, and God, and we shall not be permitted to labour in vain. 

Mr Thompson sat down amidst loud and long continued applause. The above is 
but a very imperfect outline of his speech. 

On the motion of the Rev. John Ritchie, D.D. seconded by Adam 

Black,, Esq. Treasurer of the City, the fourth Resolution was carried 

amidst long continued applause, viz. 

" That the thanks of this Meeting be cordially given to George Thompson, Esq. 
for his intrepid, able, and successful services in the cause of Universal Emancipation, 
and particularly for his arduous and persevering exertions during his recent mission to 
the United States of America." 



Thereafter, on the motion of R. K. Greville, LL.D., seconded by the 



mr Thompson's fourth lecture. 



31 



Hon. Henry David Erskine, the thanks of the Meeting were given by 
acclamation to the Lord Provost for his conduct in the Chair, and for 
the deep interest he has uniformly shewn in the cause of Emancipation ; 
which having- been duly acknowledged, his Lordship concluded the pro- 
ceedings by proposing " Three cheers for the Champion of Freedom," — 
a call which was heartily and unanimously responded to. 



MR THOMPSON'S FOURTH LECTURE. 
On Friday evening the 12th of February, Mr Thompson delivered a 
fourth lecture in Dr Peddie's chapel — the subject, " What has Christianity 
to do with American slavery V John Wigham jun. Esq. was called to the 
Chair. The spacious building was crowded to suffocation in every part ; 
and the demand for tickets exceeded the means of accommodation by 
many hundreds. The eloquent lecturer commenced his address by re- 
minding his audience that they had assembled in consequence of what had 
taken place at the last meeting, when Mr Fraser had seriously and pub- 
licly maintained that Christianity had nothing to do with slavery as it 
existed in the United States. He (Mr Thompson) had then given a pledge 
that he would devote a lecture to the special consideration of that ques- 
tion, and he met them on the present occasion to redeem it. Mr Thomp- 
son then proceeded to detail some additional facts illustrating the preju- 
dice against colour in the United States, and bearing upon the question 
under discussion. A most remarkable one was the alteration in the Ame- 
rican Collections of the following verse in a well-known hymn : — 

" Let the Indian, let the Negro, 
Let the rude Barbarian see, 
That divine and glorious conquest 
Once obtained on Calvary." 

It would hardly be believed that the first line has been struck out, and 
superseded by, 

" Let the poor benighted Pagan.'' 
Before, however, entering at large upon a description of American sla- 
very in connexion with Christianity, the learned lecturer brought the pre- 
tended Scriptural arguments of the slaveholder under a severe investiga- 
tion j and he succeeded completely in proving that, whatever the precise 
nature of that servitude might be which was specially permitted under 
the Jewish Theocracy, the spirit and maxims of the New Testament were 
directly opposed to slavery. He shewed that even in the case of Onesi- 
mus, there was no mention of slavery as we understood it. There might 
have been, and probably was, bond service of some kind, as was not un- 
frequent, when individuals bound themselves to give up their exclusive 
labour for a limited period in order to discharge a debt. But where was 
the sanction for holding property in the life-blood of a fellow sinner ? 
Where was the sanction for severing those whom God himself had forbid 
man to put asunder ? Where was the sanction for bringing the irnao-e of 
God to be bought and sold in the human shambles ? The very idea was 
50 monstrous and inconsistent with the plainest principles of Christianity, 



°^ mr Thompson's fourth lecture. 

that it was almost an insult to a Christian audience to make it the subject 
of a debate. 

Mr Thompson afterwards gave a masterly sketch of the state of American 
society, and requested his audience to observe that he had on former oc- 
casions spoken in terms of high commendation of many things in that 
fine country; but that it was his duty now to expose in all its loathsome- 
ness,, the plague-spot, with which it was defiled from the north to the 
south, — from the east to the west. It would be impossible in a few lines 
to give any idea of the mass of evidence by which he exhibited the de- 
moralizing influence of slavery upon the remotest ramifications of Ameri- 
can society ; but it may perhaps be asserted that the strongest indications 
of feeling manifested during the evening were evinced, when the fact was 
stated, that a vast proportion of the American clergy were slaveholders ; 
that the very churches might be said to nourish and approve a system of 
bondage by which the Bible was confessedly withheld, and the light of 
the Gospel excluded. For the space of three hours Mr Thompson was lis- 
tened to with intense interest. One soul seemed to animate the living 
mass, which was known to consist of considerably above two thousand 
persons. They fully recognised the principle, that the Gospel does not 
sanction slavery in any shape, and that it gave no discretionary power to 
man to enslave and hold in bondage, or to barter in the blood and sinews 
of a human being ; and, above all, they recognised the obligation they 
were under as Christians to seek its everlasting overthrow in every part 
of the world. 

MEETING IN HOPETOUN ROOMS. 
On Monday the 15th of February, Mr Thompson delivered a lecture 
before a select and highly respectable audience in the Hopetoun Rooms, 
— the Right Honourable the Lord Provost in the chair. This meeting 
took place in consequence of the earnest wish of a number of individuals 
who had been unable to attend Mr Thompson's previous addresses. Being 
deeply interested in the moral and religious welfare of the human race, 
and especially in the true prosperity of the sons of Britain on both sides 
of the Atlantic, an anxious desire was expressed that Mr Thompson 
should, in addition to his description of the extent to which prejudice 
against colour was indulged in America., also give some account of the 
noble exertions made by that country to relieve herself from the curse 
of national intemperance. This desire having been communicated to Mr 
Thompson, that gentleman most kindly and at once agreed to meet it ; and 
the subjects which he undertook to illustrate were, therefore, advertised 
as follow : — 

Physical Slavery in America — Prejudice against Colour, 

Moral Slavery in Great Britain — Prejudice against Temperance Societies. 

The Chair (which was taken at one o'clock) was supported by a num- 
ber of philanthropic and influential gentlemen. 

It is not necessary to dwell upon the first part of the address. It was 
a picture which the eloquent lecturer had already painted on former occa- 
sions to other audiences, and the details need not be recapitulated. It was 



MEETING IN HOPETOUN R003IS. 



33 



accurately drawn, and faithfully coloured ; and all who gazed on it seemed 
to be struck with horror. 

When he came, however, to treat of the second part of his subject, and 
to describe the extraordinary efforts which America had made in the cause 
of temperance — of the success which had followed those efforts — the 
temperance of her statesmen, her clergy, her merchants, her soldiers, her 
sailors — in fact, of every class in the community, he pronounced Ameri- 
ca, in this respect, far superior to Great Britain. America had almost 
delivered herself, under the blessing of God, from a worse slavery than 
that which at present disgraced her, horrible as that was — the voluntary 
slavery of drunkenness. We were really under a worse bondage than the 
slaves of the United States. We kissed our chains and hugged our fet- 
ters. We were governed by our drunken appetite. The American slave 
who could not call that body his own which God gave him, might still be 
made to partake of the liberty of the sons of God. But could the same 
be said of Englishmen and Scotsmen, sunk in the voluntary and brutaliz- 
ing slavery of intemperance ? Mr Thompson then introduced a sketch of 
the manner in which public opinion had been gradually brought to bear 
against the use of ardent spirits in America. The clergy of all denomi- 
nations took up the question as one in which the interests of religion and 
morality were deeply involved. General Assemblies, Synods, Conferences, 
&c. decided, that to traffic in ardent spirits was an immorality. The 
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in particular, published a 
series of resolutions, in which they approved of the principle of Temper- 
ance Societies, and recommended the clergy everywhere to form such 
societies. Magistrates and members of Congress threw their weight into 
the scale of temperance. There was a Congressional Temperance Socie- 
ty. Merchants considered the matter, and now a thousand American 
merchantmen sailed to all parts of the world — temperance vessels ! The 
latter circumstance was a question of more importance than many people 
supposed. In 1834, seventeen British emigrant vessels were wrecked, and 
seven hundred and thirty-one lives lost. And Mr Buchanan, British Con- 
sul at New York, in a communication addressed to the committee of the 
General Shipowners' Society, Cornhill, London, dated April 9. 1834, 
recommended as one of the best means of guarding against such a fearful 
loss of life and property in future — the exclusion of ardent spirits. The 
temperance reform in America had been, under the blessing of God, en- 
tirely produced by combination. Temperance Societies afforded an 
opportunity to the friends of religion and morality of combining against 
a great and a national sin. They did not refuse to assist in the good 
work, and they succeeded. And it is universally admitted in America, 
that true piety had increased in proportion as the temperance principle 
had prevailed. The lecturer in the concluding portion of his address, de- 
picted in a tone of high moral feeling, the degraded condition of Great 
Britain as a nation, in consequence of her extreme drunkenness. He 
shewed that habits of intemperance, or feelings and prejudices generated 
by intemperance, pervaded every class from the highest to the lowest, 



34 



mr Thompson's fifth lecture. 



the richest to the poorest. Statesmen bowed upon the altar of expedien- 
cy ; and, above all, the sanctuary was not clean. As a Christian nation, 
we were paralyzed in our efforts to evangelize the world — partly by the 
millions upon millions actually expended annually upon ardent spirits — 
partly by the selfish and demoralizing feelings which this sensual indul- 
gence in particular was known to produce. How could w T e, as a nation, 
upbraid America with her system of slavery, when we ourselves were all 
but glorying in a voluntary slavery of a thousand times more defiling 
and abominable description ? Let us do justice to America. Let the 
Christians of our country remonstrate with her firmly and affectionately 
on her crying sin — her conspiracy against the bodies and souls of her 
coloured children ; and may we listen gratefully to her rebuke of our 
country's crying sin — that apathy by which tens of thousands annually 
sunk down, uncared for, into the drunkard's grave ? In our own country, 
it might be said that there was, as it were, a conspiracy against the bodies 
and souls of her people. 



MR THOMPSON'S FIFTH LECTURE. 

In consequence of the following Requisition, Mr Thompson delivered 
his Fifth and concluding Lecture in the West Church, on Thursday even- 
ing the 18th February, on ee The Duty of British Christians with refe- 
rence to Slavery in America." 

" George Thompson, Esq. 

" Sir, — Cordially approving of your great exertions in the cause of 
Negro Emancipation, and earnestly desiring that our fellow-citizens may 
be stirred up to take a deeper interest in the liberation of the slaves, es- 
pecially in America, we beg to request that you will deliver an address 
on this subject in the West Church, which is at your disposal for an early 
day next week. — We are, Sir, your obedient servants, 

(Signed) David Dickson, D. D. ■) 

t T-| > Ministers of the West Church. 

John Paul, J 

William Cunningham, Minister of the College Church. 

Robert S. Candlish, Minister of St George's Church. 

Archibald Bennie, Minister of Lady Yester's Church. 

D. T. K. Drummond, Minister of St Paul's Episcopal Chapel. 

James Robertson, Westfield. 

Wm. Paul, Accountant. 

A. Maitland, W. S. 

Andrew Thomson, 32 Royal Circus. 

Robert Callender, M. D. 

J. S. More, Advocate. 

Alex. Dunlop, Advocate. 

W. F. H. Lawrie, W. S. 

Archibald Bonar, Royal Bank, 

J. Y. Walker, Logie Green. 

Patrick Tennent, W. S. 



MR TH03IFSGN S FIFTH LECTURE- 



35 



Previous to the hour of meeting-, Mr Thompson met with the Requisition- 
ists, the committee of the Emancipation Society, and a number of his pri- 
vate friends in the vestry; and at seven o'clock he proceeded with them into 
the church, which, though the largest building in Edinburgh, was by this 
time filled in every part. The Rev. Mr Paul accompanied him to the pulpit, 
and opened the meeting by prayer. Mr Thompson then entered on the 
proposed question of the duty of British Christians in reference to American 
slavery; and commenced an eloquent and powerful lecture by successfully 
rebutting the charge made against him, of unnecessarily interfering with 
the laws and customs of another and a foreign country. He rested the 
justification of the part which he had taken, and which he called on others 
in this country to take, on the same grounds by which our missionary 
societies justify their interference with the superstitions and vices of the 
countries to which their agents are sent. In both cases the sins and de- 
lusions of men called for our pity, and our most strenuous efforts to en- 
lighten and reclaim them ; and the obligation was the stronger in the 
case of America, from her being so closely related to us as a people, and 
so nearly allied by a common religious faith ; and from the aggravated 
nature of her guilt in continuing to practise so foul a sin in the face of 
the clear light of the Gospel. The horrible effects of slavery were illus- 
trated by Mr Thompson from the volumes of Mr Abdy, — a work which a 
respectable publishing house in America had resolved to reprint ; but, 
after they had proceeded with it a considerable length, so terrific were 
the statements it contained regarding American slavery, and so undeniable 
the facts by which these statements were authenticated, that the publish- 
ers decidedly refused to proceed any farther with it, assigning as their 
reason, — not that the book was untrue, but that, if they should publish 
it, their business would be ruined ! Mr Thompson also depicted the hor- 
rors of slavery from the work of Major Hamilton ; and from numerous ap- 
palling facts, all which he stated to be from unquestionable authority. One 
of these facts was an account of a woman, who, when her children had been 
gambled away by their unnatural father to a slaveholder, murdered her- 
self and them to save them from being separated from her. And another 
was the case of a beautiful, accomplished, and almost quite fair female, 
who, having been married by a white gentleman in a southern state, was 
followed to one of the so-called free states, where they had taken up their 
residence, and had to be ransomed by her husband for 800 dollars from 
her master, who was at the same time her own father ! In pointing out 
the particular duties of British Christians in reference to this subject, Mi- 
Thompson alluded to the constant and intimate intercourse kept up be- 
tween America and this country ; and insisted on the duty of our availing 
ourselves of that intercourse, to state our views and feelings on the sub- 
ject. Even in private letters to America, a few words in behalf of the 
poor and oppressed slaves, might and ought to drop from the pen of 
every Christian writer. Church courts, congregations, and religious asso 
ciations of all denominations, he contended, also ought to take up the 
subject, and remonstrate with their American brethren on the iniquity and 



36 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



impiety of their conduct. He likewise referred to the practice which had 
been begun, of sending delegates from the churches, and expressed a hope 
that those who might hereafter be sent would not compromise the ques- 
tion, as if it were one merely of internal national politics, and not one 
deeply involving Christian principle. And, finally, he urged the duty of 
imitating America in those points in which she is worthy of imitation, 
such as her zealous exertions in the cause of missions, of temperance, &c. 
in order that our protests and remonstrances on this one grand blot in her 
character may be heard with the more willing attention. 

The number present on this occasion was nearly three thousand, who 
listened with the deepest attention and unabated interest to the statements 
and arguments of Mr Thompson ; and though detained upwards of two 
hours in so crowded a house, yet the only regret which the audience seemed 
to manifest was, that this was the concluding Lecture to be delivered on 
this occasion. 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS IN HONOUR OF MR THOMPSON. 

COMMITTEE OP MANAGEMENT. 

Messrs P. Brown. Messrs William Oliphant Jun. 

... Edward Cruickshank. ... William Sommerville Jun. 

... George Inglis Jun. ... John Wigham Jun., Convener. 

STEWARDS. 

Messrs S. S. Allison. Messrs John G. Laing. 



John Ballindean. 


... J. Laws. 


James Bayne. 


... Thomas T. Lotherington. 


George Brown. 


... John M 'Andrew. 


Robert Bryson. 


... John Macdonald. 


A. Burr. 


... William Miller." 


William Cairns. 


... James Marshall Jun. 


J. Carnegie. 


... Alexander Ogilvy. 


Abchibald Craig. 


... David Oliphant. 


John Deuchar. 


... Walter Oliphant. 


W. Duncan. 


... D. S. Peddle. 


Charles Erskine. 


... Thomas Pringle Jun. 


Hubert Fry. 


... James Renton. 


Erskine Fraser. 


... John B. Ritchie. 


William Fraser. 


... John Romanes. 


James Giles. 


... H. Rose. 


Thomas Greer, 


... George Smith. 


Robert Greville. 


... Alexander Thomson. 


Robert L. Handyside. 


... M. Wilshere. 


Joseph Johnson. 


... Daniel Wilson. 



On the evening of Friday, February 19th, a Soiree was given in the 
Assembly Rooms, George Street, in honour of Mr Thompson. So strong 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



was the desire among the friends of religion and humanity in Edinburgh 
to testify their respect towards this distinguished advocate of the rights 
of the slave, that, though the room accommodates nearly GOO persons, 
hundreds were disappointed in their application for tickets. At an early 
hour nearly all the seats were occupied, and at a little after seven o'clock, 
Mr Thompson entered the room, attended by the committee and a num- 
ber of his friends, and was received with loud acclamations by the assem- 
bled company. On the motion of John Wigham Jun. Esq. Robert Kaye 
Greville, LL. D., F. R. S., &c. &c. was called to the chair, and com- 
menced the proceedings of the evening by the following address. 

My Dear Friends, — I beg to thank you very cordially and gratefully for your kind- 
ness in placing me in the chair on the present most interesting occasion. I cannot, 
however, conceal from myself that you might have found individuals in many respects 
better qualified to discharge the duties of the evening. At the same time, if I may be 
permitted to speak for a moment of myself, I would say that, in two points of view, I 
am justified in accepting this mark of your confidence. In the first place, I am not con- 
scious of having ever flinched from my post in the hour of trial during the protracted 
but glorious struggle for Negro emancipation ; and, in the next place, I have ever been 
ready, when opportunity offered, to support and stand by that friend and champion of 
the cause in whose honour we are at this moment assembled. But in saying thus much, 
I must bear my hearty testimony to the equal claims of those by whom I am supported 
on either side, — men whose sentiments are as well known as their moral courage in 
maintaining them. 

It is impossible, my friends, to meet on an occasion like this without a crowd of asso- 
ciations rushing upon the mind. We are carried back, in spite of ourselves, to the 
commencement of that arduous struggle, or at least that portion of it in which we were 
ourselves more immediately engaged ; and it may not be altogether unprofitable to dwell 
for a few moments upon the conflict we have passed through, and the condition in 
which it has left us. Slavery, as connected with Great Britain, may be compared to 
a many-headed monster, — a sort of Hydra, which, while it was the interest of a party 
to cherish and defend, it was the duty of Christian men to annihilate. But with all the 
efforts of the virtuous and humane, it was found impossible to reach at once the heart 
of the monster. The only plan, then, was to attack the unclean beast in detail ; and 
after a long, long contest, which will be in the personal recollection of few present, one 
of the heads was lopped off. That head was the slave trade. After a little rest came 
a severer struggle, in the latter part of which we all had the honour and the privilege 
to take a share. The head to be attacked bore the name of colonial slavery, and really 
if it were possible, I should say it was an uglier head than the last. The neck was long 
enough to allow each of us to have a fair blow, and having been in at the death, I can 
truly say that, considering how it had been hacked and hewed, it is wonderful how 
tenacious cf existence it proved to be. The famous London surgeon, Sir Astley 
Cooper, used to say that, in order to perform an amputation neatly, the operator should 
have a lion's heart and a lady's hand. Now, in the amputation of the poor monster's 
second head, there was abundance of lions' hearts, — aye, and of ladies' hands too ; but 
the ladies had lost their character: they had the lion's heart like ourselves, but they 
had forgot the tenderness of touch, and, with a feeling for which I honour them, but 
which I should be sorry to see them exhibit on other occasions, they manifestly enjoyed 
the groanings and writhings of colonial slavery as it fell, never to be resuscitated. My 
friends, there remains one other head, — comely, as some think, at a distance, but 
forbidding when closely viewed ; a strong family likeness pervades every feature ; they 
call it apprenticeship ; and I do not hesitate to declare before this great assembly, that 
I should like nothing better than to have a cut at it. Let me, however, drop all figu- 
rative language, and state to you in a more serious manner, that, without presuming in 
the slightest degree to doubt the sincerity of Government in regard to the fulfilment of 
all the conditions of the act of emancipation, it is quite certain that the spirit of the act 
is departed from in some of our colonial possessions. There is still much cruelty, much 
hardship, and much evasion of the law, in Jamaica. The country is so extensive, that 
it is impossible the interests of the apprentices can be efficiently watched over. The spe- 



38 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



cial magistrates are often compelled (having no choice) to partake of the hospitality of 
the overseers ; and without questioning the purity of their motives, it is easy to see how 
difficult a part they must have to perform in consequence of such an intercourse. Even 
now, when slavery is said to be abolished, I am informed, on good authority, that young 
girls may be seen, chained two and two, working on the streets or roads, for trifling 
offences. I could enter into numerous details, were it necessary ; but I rejoice to see that 
INIr Buxton has promised to take up the question. Permit me only before I resume 
the chair, to urge upon you, dear fiiends, the necessity of not allowing this subject to 
sleep . If oppression shall be found, upon inquiry, to characterize the apprenticeship 
scheme, we shall still have a duty to perform to our patient and suffering coloured 
brothers and sisters. 

Dr Greville's speech was greeted throughout with the loudest marks of approbation* 

The view from the platform at this period of the proceedings was pe- 
culiarly impressive. This erection was placed on the middle of the 
northern side of the room opposite to the main entrance,, so that the 
tables, in four divisions, ranged from it, and the passage leading to it, 
on either hand, to the ends of the hall. Immediately in front was the 
splendid chandelier, illuminated with its zones of gas, with its brilliant 
companions on either side ; and at either end of the room were the 
magnificent mirrors in which the whole scene was reflected in two gorgeous 
vistas of light and beauty. At the tables, and on the sofas that encir- 
cled the room, were several hundreds of the most respectable citizens of 
both sexes, the ladies being for the most part in appropriate evening 
dresses. Individuals of all religious denominations, recognised among 
Christians, composed the mingled assembly, and all appearedunited in feel- 
ings of the strictest harmony and cordiality. A pleasing sensation of hilarity 
and moral interest seemed marked on every countenance ; and while youth 
and beauty and elegance gave, by their preponderance, an air of graceful 
gaiety to the scene, there were not wanting the silvery head and the lofty 
brow to indicate that wisdom and intellect were not strangers to the ob- 
jects of the festivity. 

The president, on closing his address, called upon the Rev. C. Ander- 
son to give thanks ; after which, tea and coffee were served with much 
activity, under the superintendence of the different stewards. This being 
over, a brief season was allowed for those of the company who felt so 
disposed to move about and enjoy a little friendly chat, or exchange a 
merry repartee with their acquaintances in different quarters of the room. 
So many availed themselves of this permission, however, that the pas- 
sages became crowded, and those who occupied them were obliged to 
move in one direction, so that the whole assumed the order of a promenade. 
The band in the orchestra meanwhile struck up some of our most fa- 
vourite national airs, and continued to lend the aid of their inspiring 
strains so long as the company continued to move. At length the chair- 
man resumed his seat, and the moving mass gradually sunk down into 
order by each returning to his former place. The business of the evening- 
was then resumed by the Rev. W. L. Alexander of North College Street 
Chapel being called upon by the chairman to read the Address to Mr 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



39 



Thompson, which had been prepared for the adoption of tlie company 
then assembled. It was as follows : — 

Esteemed and Honoured Friend, 

This meeting having come together for the purpose of testifying the regard in which 
you are held hy the friends of liberty and humanity in this city, we cannot content our- 
selves without doing something more than merely offering the homage of our presence 
and respectful attention to what you may address to us ; and though the manner in 
which you have been received and listened to by the numerous and intelligent audiences 
you have had an opportunity of addressing since you last arrived among us, as well as 
the resolutions which have been unanimously passed on several of these occasions, must 
have satisfied you, not merely as to the estimate formed by the inhabitants of Edinburgh 
of the value of your recent services in the cause of freedom, but also as to the place 
which you continue to hold in their warm and affectionate remembrance ; yet we cannot 
refrain from availing ourselves of the privilege afforded by the more unrestrained and 
social character of the present meeting, of conveying to you in a more direct manner 
the expression of our feelings in reference to these points. 

It is now about three years since the inhabitants of Edinburgh had first the pleasure 
of forming your acquaintance, and listening to your addresses on behalf of the oppressed 
and deeply injured slaves of our own colonies. To the events of that period our memo- 
ries revert with a peculiar vividness of interest. Arriving at a moment when the public 
mind was beginning to be fully awakened to the injustice, impiety, and cruelty of which 
our nation had so long been guilty, in tolerating the continuance of Negro Slavery in 
our Colonial possessions, you were at once welcomed as a champion in a good cause, 
and became the instrument, in the hand of Providence, of informing and directing our 
rising zeal, and of bringing our best energies to bear upon the advancement of the great 
cause of Negro Emancipation. We can well remember the effect produced upon the 
crowded audiences to which you then spoke, by the copious and well- arranged evidence 
which you adduced as to the actual state of the slaves in the British Colonies, by the 
clear and well established principles of morality, policy, and religion, which you so suc- 
cessfully applied to the question of slavery, by the consummate skill with which you 
baffled the efforts, and exploded the specious sophistries of the agents and apologists of 
oppression, and by the resistless torrents of eloquence with which you enforced your 
appeals to the hearts and consciences of those whom your arguments had already con- 
vinced. 

Since then the great work, to the advancement of which your exertions were directed, 
has, by the Divine blessing, been accomplished ; our country has been relieved from the 
odious and accursed stain of slavery; and the great truth that "man cannot hold 
property in man' has been recorded in our statute-book, as one of the settled principles 
of British law. To that result the people of Edinburgh may justly claim the honour 
of having in no mean degree contributed ; and to them it will ever be a duty, as it 
always has been, and is still, a pleasure to confess how much of the zeal, energy, and 
intelligence with which they were enabled to urge their wishes on behalf of the slave, 
was owing to the effects produced upon them by the unwearied, talented, and impressive 
exertions of the gentleman they have now the satisfaction to address. 

During the interval which has elapsed since the auspicious day on which you joined 
with the inhabitants of this city in celebrating the carrying into effect of the Bill for 
Emancipating the Slaves in the British Colonies, it has been your privilege to advocate 
the cause of the oppressed in another country, nearly related to our own by the ties of 
a common descent, a common language, and a common religion, but where your 
labours have unhappily not met with that triumphant success with which they were 
crowned here, or which we might have expected them to receive in a land that boasts 
the possession of such peculiar privileges as America, Your visit to that country we 
have watched with no incurious or uninterested eye ; and, while it has grieved us to 
learn how the force of an unreasonable and unnatural prejudice against colour, op- 
presses the minds of our brethren in that country ; while we have heard with sorrow 
and with shame of the gross and glaring inconsistencies into which this prejudice has 
led men whom we cannot but regard as fellow-christians ; while we have been filled 
with horror at the recitals you have given us of the injuries, indignities, and cruelties 
which the unhappy African is doomed to suffer in that land of boasted liberty and piety ; 
and while we have seen with mingled sensations of indignation and of pity the ungene- 



\0 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



rous and even barbarous manner in which you, our beloved friend and trusted repre- 
sentative, have been treated by these republicans of the West ; we would nevertheless 
rejoice in your having engaged in that mission, and congratulate you on the important 
results which you have been enabled to effect in that country in reference to the ob- 
ject that carried you thither. We thank you for having so ably, so zealously, so pru- 
dently, and in a spirit so truly Christian, represented to our brethren on the other side 
of the Atlantic our views and feelings in regard to this important subject. We offer 
our thanksgivings to God on your behalf, in that you have been preserved and pro- 
tected amid the many labours you were called to endure, and the threatening dangers 
to which you were exposed. We rejoice with you on account of the auspicious circum- 
stances in which you left the cause of Liberty in that vast and powerful Continent. And 
we pray that the seed you have there sown with much difficulty, and even at the peril 
of your life, may be watered by the dews from heaven, and may grow up and bring 
forth an abundant harvest of blessing to mankind, and of glory to God. 

It has afforded us the sincerest pleasure to see you again, and to welcome you back 
to the scene of your former exertions and triumphs ; and now that we are about once 
more to part, we would solemnly and affectionately commend you to the God of all 
grace, in whose service you have been labouring, and by whose blessing your labours 
have been crowned with such gratifying success. That He may watch over you and 
keep you in health and happiness for many years, — that He may abundantly bless you 
in your future engagements and undertakings, — that He may bestow his peculiar favour 
upon your partner in life, and the children he has given you, — that He may be the 
breaker up of your way and the guide of your path, — that He may comfort you with 
the privileges and enjoyments of his reconciled presence, — and that when His wise and 
all-gracious purposes with you here are finished, He may receive you with the com- 
mendation of a faithful servant, into the rest and glory of heaven, are the objects, 
dear and honoured friend, of our earnest desire and unceasing prayer on your behalf. 
With these desires and prayers we will follow you whithersoever it may please Provi- 
dence to direct your steps ; and while we remember you, we will not forget the cause 
in which you have been engaged, and with which your name is now inseparably con- 
nected. In the spirit of our holy religion, and in obedience to one of its express pre- 
cepts, we will seek to " remember those that are in bonds, as bound with them;" and 
pledged as we consider ourselves to be by the most solemn obligations to continued 
exertion in this great enterprise of Christian benevolence, we would take occasion from 
all that you have recently detailed to us, to go forward with increased alacrity and 
zeal, believing that the time is not far distant when our principles shall be acknow- 
ledged wherever the Bible is revered, and when from every nation in Christendom 
the foul blot of slavery having been washed away, the liberated bondsman shall cease 
to groan, and, rising from the degradation into which he has been plunged, shall (to 
use the words of the eloquent Curran) " stand redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled 
by the irresistible genius of Universal Emancipation." 

The Rev. Archibald Liddell, of Lady Glenorchy's Church, on moving 
the adoption of this address, spoke as follows : — 

Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, — It is my intention in rising to move that 
the address which you have just now heard read be presented to Mr George Thompson, 
as expressive of the sentiments, wishes, and prayers of this meeting on behalf of that 
gentleman — (Cheers) — and I am quite sure that I shall best consult the feelings and 
wishes of every individual now present, in making the observations which I shall sub- 
mit to you as brief as possible ; knowing as I cannot but know, and feeling as I 
certainly do, that the great object which we have before us in a meeting of this kind, 
is not so much to hear addresses from individuals we are in the habit almost weekly of 
hearing, but to listen to the sentiments which may fall from the lips of the gentleman 
on whose account we are principally convened. (Applause.) I rise, then, to move 
the adoption of the address on two grounds and for two reasons : the first is, because I 
approve of the object to which that address points; and, second, because I entirely 
concur in the sentiments contained in it with respect to the individual for whom it is 
meant, and to whom it will unanimously, I hope, be presented. (Cheers.) And 
what is the object to which that address points ? The object is the abolition of slavery 
throughout the world. (Great applause.) It is not very long ago, in the recollection 
of almost every one here present, since I could not have uttered the sentiments I am 
now about to express, without the painful consciousness that these would not be 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



responded to, at least unanimously, by a large assemblage even of the inhabitants of 
Edinburgh. It is not above four or five years ago, since the cause of slave emancipa- 
tion was a cause which required to be debated ; since the principles involved in the 
great object which is now far advanced were principles disputed, and when even the 
individual to whom the address is about to be presented had to bear much obloquy and 
scorn in this verv city, in which he is now met with the friends of immediate abolition, 
by whom he is surrounded, to receive their congratulations, in the hope that they 
may be the means of urging him forward in that course of philanthropy on which he 
has so gloriously entered. (Great applause.) That slavery is a sin, that slavery is 
opposed to the sentiments which the Bible expresses, are positions which were disputed 
even in Protestant Edinburgh. And what was the reason of this ? We need not go 
far to search for the reason. A philosopher in his study, a Christian rising from the 
perusal of his Bible, could not have uttered the sentiment that slavery is not a sin, and 
that slavery is not inconsistent with the principles of the gospel ; but we know full 
well, possessing, as each of us does, a degraded sinful human nature, — we know full 
well that the opinion which we form on any subject is' not an opinion formed by our 
calm, deliberate, and dispassionate judgment, but made up of feelings and interests 
which have themselves their sources in sin, and which it is the object of the gospel to 
annihilate ; and such, I believe, was the case in reference to Great Britain on the sub- 
ject of slavery. I speak as regards Great Britain nationally, not of any persons 
individually, — our interests nationally were found bound up with the question of slavery. 
We actually, although professing to be Christians, found ourselves bound hand, foot, 
and tongue in reference to slavery as to its unscriptural character, and also as to its 
most debasing and unhumanizing tendencies ; and I believe that the reason why we 
are now emancipated from such preconceptions and such prejudices, is to be sought for 
and found in the fact, that the Christian population of these lands, after having examined 
the subject of slavery in connection with every principle of the gospel, with which, it 
was alleged, that pernicious system was identified, felt that the nation must, if not 
solicitous of experiencing more of the judgments of the infinitely holy and just Jehovah, 
throw off the fetters which our forefathers and ourselves had cast on the bodies and 
souls of our negro brethren, must "loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy 
burdens, break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free !" And there is no one senti- 
ment in which I more cordially concur than in that which I heard uttered, and which 
many now present may have heard uttered (by Mr Thompson at the meeting in the 
Waterloo Rooms), not many days ago, that the reason why slavery is abolished is not 
the operation of political causes, or the transpiring of political events, but the blessing 
of the Almighty resting on many a fervent and importunate prayer, ascending from 
many an humble heart in these lands, whom he had blessed with " the liberty where- 
with Christ maketh his people free :" I believe that in answer to many such suppli- 
cations arising from the low and the elevated of our country, Jehovah made certain 
political revolutions the channels through which his blessing was to fall upon the outcast, 
polluted, and man-abandoned sons and daughters of iUrica. We must give to Jehovah 
the glory that is due to him — " Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, 
be the glory !" I trust and pray that Great Britain has stopped in time to save herself 
from the further displeasure of the justice-loving God, in reference to slavery in the 
British Colonies. (Great applause.) It may be that the judgments of God may yet 
be felt by us as a nation in consequence of having tolerated so long such an evil ; as I 
do verily believe that the judgments of God on nations will be experienced and felt in 
consequence of so foul a stain as that of slavery. Now, slavery, according to the 
recorded opinion of the British public, expressed legally through the representatives of 
the people in their House of Parliament, as well as by the upper House of Parliament, 
and having had the necessary sanction given to it by the executive authority of the land 
— I say slavery, in the recorded opinion of our country, is now terminated, as that which 
has long and sadly disgraced the British name. (Immense cheering.) But unques- 
tionably, although this is the case in reference to Britain, the Christianity on which 
we profess to found our opinion of the heinousness of slavery, calls upon us not to 
stop here, calls upon us to proceed to express our opinion wheresoever we find sentiments 
entertained different from those which we believe to be founded on the word of God. 
This forms the proper answer which every one of us ought to be prepared to give, in 
however small or large a circle it may be our duty, or privilege, or pain to move, and 
in which it may be asked — " What have we to do with slavery in the United States 
of America ?" Let all such persons know that the gospel requires us to speak out, 
wheresoever we find anything inconsistent with the word of God in the conduct of our 

C 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



brother. "Thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upo& - 
him." And for the Americans to keep those in bondage, both of soul and body, who 
are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, is a sin. (Cheers.) It would have been 
exceedingly wrong in one respect, though not in another, for Great Britain to have 
interfered with America even in reference to slavery, while we prevented the emanci- 
pation of slaves in our own colonies. Had Mr Thompson gone across the Atlantic four 
years ago as our representative — our trust-worthy and tried representative — (Great 
cheers) — and had he stated to our brethren there — " We want to relieve the slaves 
whom you hold in bondage from their thraldom," what other answer could we have 
expected than this ?— " Look at your own doors first, after you have cleared them of 
what you style the abominations of slavery, you may with consistency desire us to do the 
same." We felt ourselves called on, as a professing Christian nation, to do that which 
is spoken of with commendation in the word of the Lord — " they first gave their own- 
selves to the Lord;" and having given ourselves first to the extinction of slavery 
throughout our own dominions, it must, on the principle that slavery is a sin, be con- 
ceded to us by every candid and intelligent Christian, that it was out duty to proclaim 
the necessity under which our brethren in America are laid to wash their hands of the 
foul stain by which our own had been so long defiled. (Great cheering.) Such 
is the object to which the address points. The other part to which I mean to 
direct your attention for a few seconds, refers to the agent who has taken so 
decided and so distinguished a part in this cause, and entered heart and hand, into 
the prosecution of this object — I speak to that part of the address, because I most en- 
tirely concur in the grounds on which Mr Thompson is placed in the address now 
read. I speak here of the high ground on which Mr Thompson wishes to stand, and 
of the position which alone he wishes to occupy. The whole strain of the address, as 
must have been evident to all of you, proceeds upon this principle, that Mr Thompson 
is the instrument, in the hand of God, in accomplishing much in behalf of America, 
to enable her to wipe away the stain which blots, defaces, and degrades the character 
of those who are descended from ourselves. (Great applause.) Now, although Mr 
Thompson is an instrument in the hand of God, and although we believe God works 
by means, and that he can accomplish much by the feeblest instrument, it is our duty 
and our privilege to thank God that we are able to say that he has raised up an instru- 
ment in all respects qualified to do the work upon which he has entered ; and I en- 
tirely and most heartily concur in the sentiment which the address contains. I know that 
Mr Thompson feels that that is the proper footing on which to place his exertions in this 
glorious cause, which God himself has engaged to carry to a triumphant termination. I 
know that Mr Thompson feels that we do what we are required as Christians to do, simply 
to recognise him as one richly endowed by his Creator with those qualifications which are 
suited to accomplish the task before him, in a portion of which task, they have already 
been successfully exerted. (Loud cheers.) Mr Thompson has been in America, 
and he has told us of the good work having been begun there ; he has told us of the 
exertions which are being made by individuals there to arouse the people generally to 
a sense of the duty incumbent on them as Christians, as fellow workers of God, and 
fellow workers with Christ, in the dissemination of one of the fundamental principles 
of the gospel ; and we cannot entertain a doubt that the truth as it is in Jesus will 
take deep and permanent root — that this war of Christian opinion begun in America, 
will not terminate until all the sons of Africa at present degraded there, will be 
regarded as belonging to the same species, and treated accordingly, by those who vain- 
gloriously boast of a slight difference of colour : until every black man in America is 
as free as the man who, having feloniously and iniquitously possessed himself of his 
person, now tramples on his lights and liberties, and scruples not to proclaim to the 
world that rights and liberties, though dear to the master, are nothing, and less than 
nothing to the slave! (Great applause.) " There are rumours of wars" between 
America and another country in another hemisphere ; but if such wars be entered on, 
we know although man is responsible, deeply responsible for the consequences of war, 
and accountable for the principles which prompt him to it, we know that it is the will and 
decree of the Almighty, that every such event shall be overruled for the advancement 
of the great cause of his dear Son. But the war on which Mr Thompson has entered 
is a bloodless war. On the one side is truth alone, and on the other side there is 
every prejudice which the enemy of God and man can muster against the truth of God ; 
but when we know, what we cannot but know as Christians, that on the side of truth 
"the Lord mustereth his hosts to battle," — we cannot but be animated by the conn- 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



-dent persuasion, that mighty is this portion of truth as well as every other, and that it 
will prevail, — that America, recently descended from ourselves, hearing much of our 
nation's virtue, if we have any, and, I fear, still more of our iniquity ; freed from every 
thing that degrades, and blessed in the possession of every thing that truly ennobles, 
shall flourish as the home of liberty to the nations of the Western Hemisphere, shall 
become all that our own Britain now is to its surrounding world, and the generations 
that shall rejoice in its prosperity. (Loud cheers.) These being my sentiments, I 
beg to move that the address recently read be adopted, as expressive of the sentiments, 
feelings, and wishes we entertain towards the gentleman whom we have this evening 
met to honour. 

The Rev. William Peddie, of Bristo Street Church, in seconding the 
ino tiorr, said, 

Mr Chairman, — After what has fallen from the reverend gentleman who has just 
sat down, very little remains for me to say in support of the resolution; if, indeed, it 
were necessary to say almost anything in moving the adoption of an address, which, I 
believe, most truly represents the sentiments and feelings of this large and respectable 
meeting, and of thousands besides in Edinburgh, in reference to our eloquent and dis- 
tinguished guest. (Great applause.) Sir, I make no doubt that that gentleman es- 
teems the pure reward of an approving conscience, and more especially the approbation 
of the God whom he serves, far above the most sincere and profuse praises which could 
possibly be lavished upon him by us ; but there is something exceedingly gratifying, 
stimulating, and strengthening to every rightly constituted mind in receiving the 
hearty commendations of his fellow-men; and it is our duty, engaged as Mr Thomp- 
son is in an arduous struggle in our cause, in the cause of liberty, in the cause of 
Christianity, to sustain and to cheer him on in his efforts ; it is our duty to give him all 
the benefit he can possibly derive from our good wishes, our admiration, and confi- 
dence ; and it is our duty to testify these feelings as loudly, at least, as his opponents 
on the other side of the great waters have breathed out their feelings of indignation, 
and hatred, and defiance. (Cheers.) Sir, it has sometimes been said, that the greatest 
benefactors of our race, the men who have done the greatest amount of good in behalf 
of their species, have had few, while they lived, to observe and applaud their efforts, 
that they have passed on in obscurity and silence, if not under a cloud of contempt, to 
the grave ; and that then, too late, the world has awakened to a sense of their merits, 
and, after killing them with neglect, has garnished their sepulchres. (Hear, hear.) 
If this be the case, and the remark might be verified by many sad illustrations, I con- 
ceive we are doing honour to ourselves in shewing that we are not insensible to the 
merits of our friend, by heaping on him expressions of our regard now while he is 
yet with us, while his day of exertion lasts; and long, long may it last! and dis- 
tant and serene be the hour when his sun sinks in the night of death ! (Immense ap- 
plause.) 

If he will permit me to say it, much as we admire his eloquence, and who that has 
ever listened to it has not admired it ? there are other qualities of his character on 
which we gaze with still more delight. His devoted attachment to freedom, his pure 
and ardent philanthropy, the holy enthusiasm with which he has given himself body 
and mind to the redressing of the wrongs of the slave ; above all, the moral fortitude 
which has led him to expose himself to danger, and even to the hazard of life in that 
cause — these are the qualities of the man which command our most unfeigned admira- 
tion. To the patriot, who pleads and who bleeds for the liberties of his country, we 
readily give our meed of applause ; but, in the view of a justly -thinking mind, the 
Christian philanthropist must take rank among his fellow-men high above the mere pa- 
triot. The purest patriotism is commonly alloyed with selfishness ; it is necessarily 
mixed up with ideas of personal interest, of friends, of property, and individual rights ; 
the benevolence of the patriot is confined to one country, to one clime, to one people, 
and these his own ; but the spirit of the Christian philanthropist takes a higher flight, 
it embraces a wider range, it looks upon all mankind as brethren, and pleads for equal 
rights and equal happiness to all, irrespective of kindred, of country, of colour; and 
such a philanthropist is George Thompson. (Tremendous cheering.) The cause which 
he has espoused is the cause not of faction, nor of party, nor of any individual — it is 
the common cause of mankind ; it is the cause especially of that portion of mankind 
who have hitherto been the most injured and oppressed, who have in a great measure 
been cast out of the common sympathies of their brethren. Are those who are the 



14 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS 



special objects of his benevolent exertions ignorant, degraded, demoralized : Ate they. 
as our opponents say, sunk below tbe ordinary level of humanity ? So much the more 
excellent, so much the more praiseworthy, so much the more like the benevolence of 
the Son of God, is that philanthropy, which, looking upon them in their low and lost 
estate, burns with an unquenchable desire to raise them from among the ruins of slaverv, 
and to place them in a condition to enter upon the career of human improvement, 
abreast of the other civilized portions of mankind. (Loud applause.) Are thev in- 
considerable in their numbers ? No. There are as many of these persons in the 
United States of America alone as there are inhabitants in Scotland ; they are nearly 
as numerous, if I mistake not, as were the whole inhabitants of the United States at 
the time when they threw off the yoke of Britain — (Hear, hear) — and if, as the instru- 
ment of breaking that yoke, a Washington has been enshrined in the grateful affection? 
of his country, if his name has been emblazoned in deathless characters in the page of 
history, ought not a Thompson to have a niche in the temple of fame, for his noble 
efforts to work out the redemption of a people, not less numerous, as deserving, and ten- 
fold more oppressed, than were the Americans at that period ? (Long continued cheers ?) 

Sir, it must be to us all matter of sincere regret that, in the sentiments with which 
we regard Mr Thompson, so manv of our professing Christian brethren on the other 
side of the Atlantic do not participate. They account him their enemy because he has 
told them the truth. It must be matter of still deeper regret that the cause of which 
he is the champion, has encountered such furious opposition in America, But, Sir, in 
the very fury and violence of that opposition, we may mark a token for good, grounds 
for encouragement and for hope. "VTe may with confidence conclude from it that the slave 
system is, in the opinion of its friends, in peril, and that some symptoms of coming de- 
liverance begin to brighten the sky of the slave. It is when men find themselves beaten 
in argument that they burst into passion. (Cheers.) It is when they are unable to 
maintain their cause by fair means that they resort to foul. (Hear, hear.) "vThen 
the devil comes down m great wrath we may be sure his time is short. (Great cheer- 
ing.) The state of things, which the friends of the slave would have most reason to 
dread, would be a dead calm in America on the subject of slavery. But, Sir, I am 
persuaded, that, through the instrumentahty of our honoured friend and his noble co- 
adjutors, a ferment has been excited in that country, which will never be allayed until 
everv slave is a freeman, and every coloured man is hailed by the white as a friend and 
a brother. (Vehement applause.) I have great confidence, Sir, in the energy of the 
American character. There are many minds in that country who. now that they have 
been disencumbered of prejudice, will rest neither day nor night till they have disabused 
their brethren of the same prejudice, and won their cause. I have great confidence in 
the mass of Christianity and moral worth which does exist in that land, however taint- 
ed, and however clogged in its operations by the sin of slavery. I have great confidence 
in the power of the truth, or rather in that Omnipotent arm, which is able to apply the 
truth, with irresistible effect, to the consciences and hearts of men, and which will 
one day gloriously rule the world by the truth as it is in Jesus. 

Jlr Peddie then concluded with cordially seconding the adoption of the Address, 
and sat down amidst a burst of applause which lasted for some time. 

The Chairman having put the question, — Is it the pleasure of this meet- 
ing that this Address be adopted ? the whole assembly- rose to their feet, 
and ^ave utterance to the loudest plaudits in testimony of their concur- 
rence in the sentiments therein expressed. He then affixed his signature 
to the roll, and turning to Mr Thompson, spoke as follows : — 

My Dear Friend. — It is my privilege, as Chairman, to present you with 
this Address, which has just been so cordially and unanimously agreed to by this 
great meeting. It is my privilege, Sir, to have signed that document ; and it is my 
additional privilege, as Chairman of this meeting, to express, individually, that 
there is not a sentiment in the address with which I do not concur from the bottom of 
rav heart There has been, Sir, a definition of gratitude, which I have somewhere met 
with, in which it is stated that, " gratitude is a lively anticipation of future favours." 
(Laughter.) But that, Sir, is not the gratitude of this meeting. The gratitude of 
this meeting I know and feel is of a purer kind ; and I know also, that if, in the Pro- 
vidence of God, you shall be called upon to take a further part in the cause of Uni- 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



45 



versal Emancipation, we may justly anticipate, from what you have done, what you will 
do, and that you will be a faithful servant. (Great applause.) My Dear Friend, I 
present you with this Address with inexpressible pleasure, and I hope that you may be 
spared for many years, and be permitted to finish your course in the glorious character 
of a faithful servant. (Cheers.) 

Mr Thompson then rose, and was received with vehement applause. 

Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, — It is not a scene like this, however 
glittering and delightful, that is calculated to render me fluent, or assist me to language 
in which appropriately to express the feelings with which my heart overflows. Those 
who know me best will bear witness, that it is in moments like the present that I am in 
danger of failing to give utterance to the thoughts which crowd upon the mind. To 
prepare an address of thanks in anticipation of a scene like this, is what I never yet 
could do, although I never yet succeeded in acquitting myself under such circumstan- 
ces to my own satisfaction. I do not, however, believe that those who now sui round me 

the kind and confiding friends by whom I have been cherished and surrounded — desire 

me to be very diffuse in my expression of thanks. (Cheers.) I shall, therefore, 
promptly quit a topic to me of all others the most unmanageable, although I might per- 
haps be pardoned, if, on such an occasion, I ventured to speak somewhat largely of 
myself. (Cheers.) I beg those around me to accept my assurance of sincere esteem, 
and of my unabated attachment to that cause, as the advocate of which they now ho- 
nour me. To me, this season, though one of exquisite and pure enjoyment, is one of 
trembling and alarm. There is room to fear, when greeted by sounds and sights like 
these, that the head may become intoxicated — the heart proud and self-complacent — and 
that, after all, some act may be committed calculated to alienate the confidence and af- 
fections of these practical friends. I am reminded, Sir, that I am but man — that I am a 
young man — having all the frailties and feebleness common to our nature ; and, that to 
me therefore, applies the salutary caution of Holy Writ — " Let him thatthinketh he stand- 
eth take heed lest he fall." I desire ever to fear — since fear is a conservative princi- 
ple — and we are all most likeby to walk safely when we are most distrustful of ourselves, 
and most dependent upon the wisdom and power of God. (Loud cheers.) I am much 
affected when I look back upon the history of my acquaintance with this city. I came 
amongst you a stranger — without name, without fortune, without influence. You, Sir, 
who now fill the chair, were one of the first whose hands I grasped in Edinburgh ; by 
your side sits one under whose roof I was received and cherished, and on either side 
are those who were among the first to counsel and to cheer. Years have rolled away, 
but they have only deepened the regard we at first contracted for each other. You 
have multiplied your proofs of kindness and friendship, while my heart has been draw- 
ing closer and closer in love and gratitude towards you. (Loud cheers.) In addition 
to the fostering friendship of yourself, Sir, and those immediately about you, I have been 
upheld by the smiles and plaudits of hundreds and thousands of the best portions of 
the population of this city, and this brilliant assembly is an overwhelming proof that 
my friends are daily multiplying, and that the cement which binds us to each other is 
only made stronger by age. (Cheers.) It is delightful to know that ours is no mer- 
cenary attachment — we love each other for the truth's sake. Our hearts are knit to- 
gether, blended and welded into one, by the high principles of religion. We are 
united by one common object. "We know each other, and love each other ; because we 
can together weep, and work, and pray, in behalf of the suffering and enslaved. The 
address I have received at your hands points to the late victorious struggle in the cause 
of freedom for our Colonies. It was in that struggle we became acquainted, and it 
was our triumph in that struggle which led to our union for the overthrow of slavery 
throughout the world. (Cheers.) Ours is no party attachment. We meet not here 
to applaud and sustain each other as Whigs or Tories, Voluntaries or friends of Es- 
tablishments — No ! we stand firm, united, and inseparable — irrespective of creeds and 
dogmas — upon the broad, and universally recognised principles of humanitv, moralitv, 
and religion. (Immense applause.) I have not time, Sir, to dwell upon the manv 
topics introduced into the able and very flattering address which you have just presented 
to me. Upon one, however, I may crave permission to say a word. The address ex- 
presses gratitude to God for my deliverance from the many dangers to which I was 
exposed, while pleading the cause of the slave in America. With that part of the ad- 
dress I most devoutly concur : my preservation from the manv plots devised for mv de- 
struction calls for my deepest gratitude, and lays me under the most solemn obligation-: 



16 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



to my great Preserver. It may be interesting to my friends to receive from my lips, in 
this very social meeting, some account of the manner in which I was occasionally treated 
while prosecuting my labours in the United States. (Great cheering.) I will there- 
fore carry you, for a few moments, over the Atlantic, and make you live through one 
or two of the extraordinary scenes which it was my lot to witness. 

Mr Thompson then went into a graphic description of his treatment in the town of 
Abington, Massachusetts, on the evening of a Sabbath in the month of October last. 
Notwithstanding the church, in which Mr T. was about to lecture, was filled with the 
most respectable inhabitants of the town, a profane and vulgar rabble, after attempting 
to prevent Mr T. from entering the house, proceeded to molest him during the exer- 
cises of the evening. A heavy lamp was dashed through the window immediately be- 
hind the pulpit, with an intention of injuring the speaker, but did no harm. The ruf- 
fians were proceeding to make a noose in the bell rope, to throw over Mr Thompson, 
but were discovered and turned out of the vestry, in which they had assembled. They 
then commenced breaking the windows of the building. Mr T., nevertheless, 
proceeded in the delivery of a solemn address, which was listened to with fixed 
attention by the intelligent and highly respectable auditory, who regarded, with 
much horror, the acts of the lawless rabble without. At the close of the meet- 
ing, as Mr Thompson was retiring from the house, a cry was raised of " Lynch him," 
• £ Out with him,'' " Hustle him out," " Down with him," &c. &c. and the mob fol- 
lowed after him like a troop of hungry wolves ; but he escaped without injury, al- 
though he was struck by a stone upon the side of the face. The sober and upright 
citizens were filled with a righteous indignation in view of such outrages, and im- 
mediately arrested six of the rioters — three of whom were bound over to appear and 
take their trial at the Supreme Court. Mr Thompson was subsequently invited by a 
Town Meeting to deliver a second lecture. The invitation was accepted, and on the 
arrival of the day a very large, respectable, and attentive auditory welcomed the lec- 
turer, and listened to him with profound interest. The following account of the second 
meeting was given in a letter addressed to Mr Garrison, the Editor of the Boston 
Liberator. 

MR THOMPSON AT ABINGTON. 

Dear Sir, — I am happy to inform you that we have had the pleasure of listening, 
this afternoon, to a long and most eloquent address from Mr Thompson, in peace and 
quietness, notwithstanding the base attempt of some of your Boston editors to incite 
the disorderly to come here and make a disturbance. The meeting-house was filled 
above and below. 1 saw not an empty seat on the floor or in the galleries. People 
came from all the adjoining towns — many of them our most intelligent and influential 
inhabitants. Although it may be too true, that the merchants of Boston and New York 
will consent to have their liberty of speech abridged, for the sake of the southern 
trade ; — and the politicians of our cities will compromise the freedom of the press to 
the accomplishment of their party purposes — yet will not the Yankee farmers consent 

" To be told, beside the plough, 

What they must speak, and when, and how." 

It seems to me the question now before our country, is not so much whether slavery 
shall be abolished ? as, whether the palladium of our own liberties shall be preserved 
inviolate ? The opposers of the Abolitionists are trampling upon the Constitution. 
We have the same right to invite Mr Thompson to address us on the subject of slave- 
ry, as to invite any other man — and to be unmolested in our right. Those who do 
not wish to hear him may stay away from our meetings. But we will not consent 
that the pro-slavery party shall come or send into our country towns to break up or 
disturb meetings, which we see fit to hold, under the sanction of the constitution, in 
order that we may be enlightened as to our duty to our enslaved countrymen. If we, 
or the abolitionists, or Mr Thompson, violate the laws of the land, let us or them be 
dealt with accordingly — but if the laws protect us, let not our fellow-citizens counte- 
nance the outrages of mobocrats, however " rich and respectable" they may be. 

I rejoice that we have had a large meeting of the yeomanry of Massachusetts assem- 
bled in this town, to hear Mr Thompson just at this time ; because the opposers of 
freedom and the rights of man, and the liberty of speech, seem to have singled him 
out as the especial object of attack, thus identifying him with the cause which every 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



47 



true New Englander loves. I have no time to give you a detailed account of Mi- 
Thompson's address. It was listened to with deep, often breatldess attention ; and 
not a sentiment escaped his lips, although he spoke with matchless rapidity, to which 
any friend of man or of America could object. Yours, R. 

East Abington, Oct. 15. 1835. 

P. S. I was happy to hear, as we were coming out of meeting, several invitations 
given to Mr Thompson by the people of the adjoining towns, to come thither also and 
address them. I mention this, that you city folks may know the spirit of the country 
people is rising. 

Mr Thompson then proceeded to give a deeply interesting account of a riot in the 
town of Concord, New Hampshire, where he narrowly escaped falling into the hands 
of a murderous mob. As we regret that we are not able to report this part of Mr 
Thompson's address, we extract from the Liberator,- an amusing and interesting 
letter upon the same subject. It is from the pen of the American Quaker poet, who 
was the friend and companion of Mr Thompson upon that occasion, 

LETTER FROM MR WHITTIER. 

" Boston, 9th, 9th mo. 1835. 

" Dear Friend, — In my hasty meeting with thee on 2d day last, I had not an oppor- 
tunity to comply with thy request, viz. to furnish thee with a verbal account of the 
disturbances in Concord, N. H. on the night of the 4th inst. A friend has just handed 
me the Boston papers, containing some incorrect statements, in reference to the 
affair, and therefore in extreme haste I write thee a line in explanation, that thou 
mayst have the whole of it. A regular meeting of the Concord Anti- Slavery Society 
was announced on the morning of the 4th inst. and it was stated that George Thomp- 
son and myself were expected to be present and address the audience. This annunciation 
of myself was altogether unknown to me until late in the evening. 1 am, heart and 
soul, an Abolitionist, but by no means a speaking one. Had a meeting been held, 
I should have certainly attended it, for I am democrat enough to love the friends of 
freedom and equality everywhere. However, the select men, alarmed by certain 
belligerent appearances in the street, thought proper to close the doors of the Town 
Hall, and thus prevent the intended meeting. But the sovereign mob were not to be 
put off thus easily. They had gathered together for a mob — they had drunk themselves 
into a state of remarkable patriotism — they had come to the rescue of the Constitution 
and the laws of the land — they had sworn vengeance against the Abolitionists, and 
vengeance they meant to have. Just at dusk, in company with C. Hoag, a member 
of the Society of Friends, and J. H. Kimbal, Editor of the Herald, I passed near 
a large multitude congregated in the principal street of the town. The good people 
were lashing each other into a fine phrenzy — cursing the Abolitionists, as Federalists, 
&c. The cry was raised " To George Kent's and the wine in his cellar ! Fearing an 
attack upon our friend's house, we turned to go back and give warning of the danger. 
But our friends, the mobites, followed us, and insisted that I, notwithstanding my Quaker 
coat, must be the identical incendiary and fanatic, Geo. Thompson. A regular 
6hower of harmless curses followed, and soon after another equally harmless shower of 
stones. These missiles were hurled with considerable force, and might have done us 
some injury, had not those who projected them, been somewhat overdone by their 
patriotic exertions in drinking destruction to the Abolitionists. 

In order to escape this somewhat unique attempt to Macadamize us — this granite 
specimen of the hospitality of the Granite State — we entered the house of the Hon. 
Wm. A. Kent, who, together with the Rev. Mr Thomas, the Unitarian Clergyman, 
and an Abolitionist, assured the stormy and somewhat obstreperous multitude without, 
that they had mistaken their man, and that George Thompson was not iu the house. 
After some little delay the cry of " Onward" was given, and the unwieldy mass moved 
up the street to the beautiful mansion of Geo. Kent, Esq. Here they commenced 
shouting at the top of their voices, as if they expected the solid walls of the edifice 
before them to fall like those of Jericho. Their yells at this period were absolutely 
infernal. For miles around they *« made the night hideous." 

" It was as if the fiends that fell 
Had pealed the banner cry of Hell !" 

After throwing a few stones at the house — and after poisoning the very atmosphere 



48 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



around them with obscenity and blasphemy, those " friends of the Constitution and 
the rights of our Southern brethren" retired. Geo. Thompson on the first appear- 
ance of the mob left the house and proceeded by a back street towards the town, and 
did not return until they had left the premises of our friend Kent. After parad- 
ing the town for an hour or two ; refreshed with " Deacon Giles' best," and provided 
with drums, fifes. &c. they once more returned, and once more, to use the words of 
Milton, 

" A furious noise environed us 

Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs," 

and then these guardians of constitutional rights retired upon their laurels : 

" The King of France with fifty thousand men, 
Marched up the hill, and then marched down again." 

From two o'clock until nearly sunrise, the glorious rescue of the Constitution from 
the onslaught of the Abolitionists, was celebrated by the discharge of cannon ! We 
left our kind and warm-hearted friends, George Kent and his lady, with their ami- 
able and excellent visitors, early in the morning in company with Rev. Mr Putnam 
of Dunbarton ; and all further proceedings, although unknown to myself, will doubt- 
less be officially published in a glorious and glowing description of the preservation of 
the Union — by a mob ! 

I think I can account for the mob at Concord. It was not any abstract hatred of 
Abolition principles — for they are the principles of Jeffersonian democracy — and those 
upon which, the Constitution of New Hampshire rests. Not any particular hatred of 
Geo. Thompson — the mob had never seen him — never heard him. No — it was 
got up, without a question, for political effect — to convince the South that the hard- 
working democracy of New Hampshire was hand and glove with the slaveholaing 
democracy of Virginia and the Carolinas — to enable Ritchie of the Enquirer to point 
exultingly to the " putting down of the fanatics," by the friends of Van Bur en. 
In this State ancient federalism has put on the harness with Harrison Gray Otis at 
its head — Otis, the man whose parricidal arm was withered when he raised it against 
his country in the hour of her extremest need — to enable the Richmond Whig to assure 
his slave-holding patrons that the professed friends of Daniel Webster are ready to 
cast him aside and unite, in supporting the slaveholder's candidate — Judge White. 
Consequently the Abolitionists are exposed to two fires. Both of the great political parties 
are cursing us "by bell, book, and candle," in eager competition with each other — 
for political effect — to gull the South. It will not avail. The South will not be de- 
ceived. The slaveholder sees the true nature of the Northern mobs and Anti- Abo- 
lition Meetings. He asks for more — he demands legislative action. This he cannot 
have. — Who dares in the Legislature of Massachusetts to attempt the resurrection of 
the OLD SEDITION LAW from its grave of ignominy — to call it out from its abode 
of curses to fetter the free soul of New England ? No one. What, then, will all these 
wire-worked and heartless Anti- Abolition movements here amount to ? Depend upon 
it, they will but accelerate the cause of universal Emancipation ! 

In haste, truly thy friend, John G. Whittier. 

Mr Thompson, after giving various other instances of the exhibition of popular 
feeling towards himself and the friends of Abolition, resumed his seat amidst repeated 
cheers. 

At the close of Mr Thompson's address, the business of the evening was 
relieved by another brief period of relaxation, during which fruit was 
handed round and conversation freely indulged in, the band in the mean 
while playing some of the most spirit-stirring and favourite of our na- 
tional airs. Business having been again resumed, Mr Thompson once more 
presented himself to the meeting, and said, 

Mr Chairman — I should feel that I had not done my duty on this joyous occasion, if 
I did not, before parting, bring under the notice of those who iear me a name indis- 
solubly connected with the cause of Immediate and Universal Emancipation — a name 
which, through coming ages, will be dear to every friend of humanity and freedom — the 
name of William Lloyd Garrison — (Tremendous cheering) — the talented, the heroic 
the uncompromising, the successful champion of the inalienable rights of man. (Renewed 
plaudits.) I may not hope to do justice to the name I have mentioned — the moral 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



49 



worth, the unbending integrity, the deep devotion to the cause of liberty, the almost 
unparalleled sacrifices, and the unexampled achievements of William Lloyd Gar- 
rison, demand a tongue more eloquent than mine, though human eloquence could not 
be coupled with a warmer affection than that which I cherish for my beloved friend. 
(Cheers.) It is with sorrow and indignation equally mixed that I call to mind the 
cruel injustice done to the character of this inestimable man when his name was first 
made known in this country. We were taught to regard him as a madman, an incen- 
diary, a pestilent fellow, the fit companion of felons, the guilty inmate of a dungeon. 
I confess that my own mind was poisoned, and many others besides myself were led to 
think of William Lloyd Garrison as of one scarcely fit to live — the fomenter of 
sedition and bloodshed. I thank God I now know this man. I have watched him, 
looked into his spirit, mixed with those who have known him from his youth up, — I have 
laboured with him, have heard him in public and in private, have seen him in his most 
unbended hours, know the estimation in which he is held by thousands in his own land, 
have talked with great numbers who have been converted by his writings, — I have, more- 
over, read with a jealous eye all his works within my reach, and the result of the whole 
is, a deep conviction in my mind that there breathes not a purer, nobler, more exalted 
friend of the human race than William Lloyd Garrison. (Great cheering.) 
Knowing him and loving him myself, I naturally desire that you should know him and 
love him also : and, as to know him is to love him, I shall to-night endeavour to bring 
you acquainted with him, and then submit a resolution which has been placed in my 
hands. Mr Thompson then went into a minute and deeply affecting history of the la- 
bours and sufferings of this distinguished advocate of the oppressed. After tracing him 
from his birth to his connection with the amiable and indefatigable friend of the Negro, 
Benjamin Lundy, whom he joined in the conduct of a newspaper called the Genius of 
Universal Emancipation, Mr Thompson stated, that for writing an article condemna- 
tory of the slave-trade as carried on in America, and introducing the name of an indi- 
vidual who had participated in the horrid traffic, Mr Garrison was indicted for a libel, 
and, being found guilty, was thrown into a jail in Baltimore, there to remain until he 
paid a fine of a thousand dollars, — that Arthur Tappan of New York paid the fine 
and redeemed Mr Garrison, who immediately commenced lecturing upon the subject 
of abolition, and in January 1830 put forth the first number of the Liberator newspa- 
per. Mr Thompson described the effect produced by the lectures of Mr Garrison 
and the publication of the Liberator, and noticed particularly, the great service rendered 
to the cause by Mr Garrison's " Thoughts on African Colonization." Mr Thompson 
also intimated, amidst loud cheering, his intention of going fully into the merits of the 
Colonization Society in a lecture to be devoted to that subject as desired, and which, he 
trusted, he would have an opportunity of delivering on some future occasion. Mr 
Thompson spoke in the highest terms of the prudence and sound judgment of Mr 
Garrison, and expressed his full belief that the course Mr Garrison had pursued 
was the one best calculated to promote the great object he had in view. He (Mr 
Thompson) knew no man by whose counsel he could more readily walk than Mr Gar- 
rison's. He had invariably found him thoughtful, cautious, and enlightened in refe- 
rence to the adoption of any new measure ; and he could sincerely say that he had ne- 
ver known him err in his advice. After expressing a hope, which was loudly cheered, 
that Mr Garrison would one day afford his many affectionate and admiring friends in 
Scotland the pleasure of seeing him 3 

Mr Thompson proposed the following- resolution, which was received 
with the most enthusiastic applause : — 

Resolved, That this meeting do express their deep sense of the debt which the friends 
of Universal Emancipation owe to William Lloyd Garrison of Boston, Massachu- 
setts, who, through years of reproach, and danger, and persecution, has remained the 
undaunted, unwearied, and Christian-minded champion of the cause of his suffering and 
enslaved countrymen. 

The motion was seconded by the Rev. Christopher Anderson,, who 
spoke nearly as follows : — 

Mr Chairman, — There is certainly no one present who can remain uninte- 

D 



50 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



rested or unaffected by the account we have just heard of Mr Garrison. I had not 
intended saying a single word this evening ; but when requested by you, Sir, before 
Mr Thompson rose, to second this motion, I felt then, and more so now, that I must 
not, could not, merely second it. I happen to be one of those who, in this citv, heard 
Mr Garrison referred to in the manner described, and it was in this way my at- 
tention was first directed to his character and exertions. With both, however, I soon 
became fully and accurately acquainted, and 1 afterwards had the pleasure of his ac- 
quaintance in London, as well as the gratification of conveying him down to Westmin- 
ster Abbey to attend the funeral and the grave of Wilberforce. (Cheers.) I can 
therefore bear witness to the artless and child-like simplicity of his character ; but now 
that we have had his whole example and exertions set before us, I cannot help feeling 
that the most solemn responsibility stands connected with our being made so fully ac- 
quainted with his entire history. Example is more powerful than precept ; and I do 
hope that all present, and more especially the young amongst us, will here observe the 
noble consequences resulting from a most stedfast and unflinching adherence to mercy 
and truth in the path of duty, and an entire renunciation of the baneful, the cursed 
doctrine of expediency as applied to morals. (Great applause.) 

In reference to Mr Garrison, however, there is still another consideration which 
demands our most serious and immediate regard. Let us observe the position in which 
he now stands, and ours also in connexion with him. We approve of his exertions, 
and desire to encourage him. We, as a nation, have abolished slavery, and he speaks 
of us as " the only land of the free." But let us not forget, Sir, that the Americans 
are most sensitively alive to every evil or defect in our proceedings, and the appren- 
ticeship, as it has been called, remains. (Hear, hear.) They watch over the evils 
said to be resulting from our proceedings in the West Indies, and it is well for us that 
they do so. Hence every evil, cruelty, or defect, the anti-abolitionists of America 
will glean up and insert in their newspapers, and these paragraphs will circulate 
throughout every State of the Union. I was, therefore, pleased to hear you, Sir, 
our Chairman, allude to this apprenticeship, and that, too, as the only remaining 
head of a monster — that it must be dealt with as the other heads of the slave trade, and 
slavery itself has been — it must be cut off. While such enormities are still practised, 
are we to be deluded by the mere change of a word ? More especially when such cruel- 
ties are sufficient to banish the very terms of apprentice and apprenticeship from our 
English vocabulary. (Cheers.) But, then, Sir, in the mean while, in what a state 
or position does this system place Mr Garrison, the uncompromising abolitionist of 
America — weakening his hands, as well as preventing the force and consistency of re- 
monstrance on our part ? I should not be at all surprised if soon, in an American news- 
paper sent across to us, we should find an article, headed in capital letters, with these 
words, " British Apprenticeship versus American Slavery," taunting us with 
our inconsistency. The town of Birmingham has already, I rejoice to say, taken up 
the subject, and spoken out on the cruelties perpetrating under the prostituted name of 
Apprenticeship, and I trust that our attention will immediately be directed to this re- 
maining evil. (Cheers.) 

Approving, therefore, as I do, of the motion just made by our valued friend Mr 
Thompson, as some feeble token of our admiration of Mr Garrison's generous, he- 
roic, and praiseworthy example and exertions, I beg leave most cordially to second it. 
(Renewed applause.) 

The Resolution was then put from the Chair and carried unanimously. 

On the motion of W. Beilby, Esq. M.D. thanks were voted by acclama- 
tion to the Committee and Stewards, for the admirable arrangements that 
had been made for the accommodation of the meeting, and for the excel- 
lent skill with which the whole had been conducted. Mr Wigham jun. 
in the name of the Committee and Stewards, acknowledged the vote. 

On the motion of the Rev. W. Anderson of Loanhead, seconded by 
Mr Thompson, thanks were voted to Dr Greville for his excellent con- 
duct as Chairman, which the latter duly acknowledged. 

4 



SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. 



51 



Before separating, the company joined in singing the following hymn. : 

' ' O'er the gloomy hills of darkness, 
Look, my soul, be still and gaze ; 
All the promises do travail 

With a glorious day of grace. 
Blessed jubilee, 

Let thy glorious morning dawn. 

" Let the Indian, let the Negro, 
Let the rude Barbarian see, 
That divine and glorious conquest, 

Once obtained on Calvary : 
Let the gospel 

Loud resound from Pole to Pole." 

And the meeting was concluded by the Rev. Dr Ritchie engaging in 
prayer. 

Tims closed the festivities of an evening, which will be long remem- 
bered by all who were present. So rapidly and pleasantly had the time 
slipped away, that it was with a feeling of surprise that those who had 
not been careful to note its progress learned that it was already past 11 
o'clock. Respecting the arrangements that had been made for the enter- 
tainment of the company, there could be but one opinion — they were ad- 
mirable in every respect. Nor will the effect produced by the different ad- 
dresses be easily forgotten by those who heard them. Few, it is believed, left 
the splendid hall, in which they had that evening met, without having 
their hearts warmed, their spirits elevated, their principles confirmed, and 
their hopes of ultimate success in the cause of humanity brightened and 
increased. A scene such as this makes one exult in the land of his birth, 
and long for the day when other countries shall taste and enjoy that free- 
dom for which our own has been so distinguished ! 

" We envy not the warmer clime, that lies 
In ten degrees of more indulgent skies ; 
Nor at the coarseness of our heav'n repine, 
Tho' o'er our heads the frozen Pleiads shine 
'Tis Liberty that crowns Britannia's Isle, 
And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile." 

Addiso>i. 



PRINTED BV NEILL & CO. OLD FISH MARKET. 



EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION SOCIETY. 



SUBSCRIPTIONS and DONATIONS 
Received from January 1. 1836, to March 16. 1836. 

William Wemyss, Esq. 3 Salisbury Road, 

Rev. William Anderson, Loanhead, 

James Robertson, Esq. Cramond, 

Auonymous, per W. Alexander, Esq. Leith, 

Peter Brown, Esq. North Bridge, 

Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation Society, 

Proceeds from sale of Tickets of Admission to Five Lectures on American 
Slavery, delivered by Mr Thompson, deducting expenses, 

H. M. Gibb, Esq. Prince's Street, .... 

Female Society for General Purposes in Rev. Dr Ritchie's Congregation, 
Potterrow, ...... 

William Oliphant, Esq. 5 Salisbury Road, 

Rev. Christopher Anderson, 5 North Charlotte Street, 

William Sommerville, Esq. Auchindinny, 

William Sommerville Jun. Esq. 8 South St David Street, 

John Dunlop, Esq. St Andrew's Square, - . 

George Wilson, Esq. 23 St Andrew's Street, 
James Martin, Esq. 23 St Andrew's Street, 
James Ogilvy, Esq. Prince's Street, 
James Ogilvy Jun. Esq. do. . e 
Charles Ogilvy, Esq. do. .... 

Y. Y. per Mr Ogilvy, . . 

William Oliphant Jun. 7 South Bridge, 
John Wigham Jun. Esq. Salisbury Road, 
George Inglis Jun. Esq. Princes Street, 
Alexander Cruickshank, Esq. Lauriston Lane, 
Edward Cruickshank, Esq. George Street, 



In consequence of several large payments having lately been made by the Society, 
their funds, notwithstanding the above Subscriptions and Donations, are at present 
nearly exhausted, and as a wide sphere of usefulness is now opening up, the friends of 
humanity are earnestly invited to aid by their contributions the endeavours of the Com- 
mittee to ameliorate the condition of their coloured brethren throughout the world. 

Subscriptions for the Society are received by 
Messrs Cruickshank and Sons, 57 George Street ; 
Messrs Sommerville and Son, 8 South St David Street ; and 
Messrs Oliphant and Son, 7 South Bridge Street ; or by any of the 
Members of Committee.. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




